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FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION OF THE KAISER S VISITING CARD 






THE VISITING CARD OF THE CROWN PRINCE, 
REPRODUCED IN FACSIMILE 



YACK TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
JAMES W. GERARD 




THE KAISER AND VON TREUTLER 

TAKEN IN THE NORWEGIAN TOWN OF ODDE IN 1910 



FACE TO FACE 
WITH KAISERISM 



BY 



JAMES W. GERARD 

LATE AMBASSADOR TO THE GERMAN IMPERIAL COURTj 
AUTHOR OF "MY FOUR YEARS IN GERMANY" 




NEW YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



^ 



h 



COPYRIGHT. 1918. 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



APR -8 1918 



COPYRIGHT. 1918, BY THE PUBLIC LEDGER COMPANY 



COPYRIGHT. CANADA. 1918, BY THE PUBLIC LEDGER COMPANY 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



©CI,A49449'1 



A 



TO 

COLONEL EDWARD M. HOUSE 

STATESMAN AND FRIEND 

THE AUTHOR 
DEDICATES THIS BOOK 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

In some measure this book is a continuation of \ 
MY FOUR YEIARS IN GERMANY, the narrative here / 
being carried up to the time of my return home, 
with some observations on the situation I have 
found in the United States. 

What I want especially to impress upon the peo- 
ple of the United States is that we are at war be- / 
cause Germany invaded the United States — an in- 
vasion insidiously conceived and vigorously prose- 
cuted for years before hostilities began; — that this / 
war is our war; — that the sanctity of American | 
freedom and of the American home depend upon | 
what we do NOtV. ' if 

jAMJeS W. GERARD. 

New York, 
Aprii. First, 191 8. 



vi! 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Personality of the Kaiser and 

Something of the King Business 13 

II Who Does the Kaiser's Thinking 
AND Who Decided on the Break 
WITH America? 32 

III Who Sank the "Lusitania" ? . . . 42 

IV The Kaiser AND " Lese-Majeste " , 49 

V When the Kaiser Thought We Were 

Bluffing 55 

VI The Inside of German Diplomacy . 73 

VII Germany's Plan to Attack America 84 

VIII Germany's Early Plots in Mexico . 11 1 
IX The Kultur of Kaiserdom — The 

German Soul 129 

X The Little Kaisers 143 

XI Royalty's Recreation 148 

XII The Eternal Feminine .... 157 

ix 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE. 

XIII Home Life and "Brutality" of the 

People i66 

XIV Aims of the Autocracy .... 174 

XV Austria-Hungary — The Kaiser's Vas- 
sal State 196 

XVI German Influence on the Northern 

Neutrals 217 

XVII Switzerland — ^Another Kind of Neu- 
tral 230 

XVIII A Glimpse of France 237 

XIX My Interview with the King of 

Spain 251 

XX Geraian Spies and Their Methods 263 

XXI En Route Home — Kaiserism in Amer- 
ica 273 



XXII That Interview with the Kaiser 

XXIII The Future Kaiser — The Crown 

Prince and His Brothers . 

XXIV When Germany Will Break Down 
XXV The Errors of Efficient Germany 

XXVI President Wilson and Peace . . 

XXVII After the War, What? . . . 



300 

312 
323 
340 
346 
368 



ILLUSTRATIONS 
The Kaiser and von Treutler . . . Frontispiece ^'^ 

PAGE 

The Iron Cross 36 -^ 

The United States Embassy Staff, Berlin . 50 w^'' 

Facsimile of an Order Issued by Commander 
OF German Prison Camp of Doeberitz . . 78 k^ 

Cover OF Pamphlet BY John L. Stoddard . . ' 104 v/ 

Photograph Taken in Courtyard of Embassy, 

August, 1916 126 '-' 

Example of a Commemorative Medal Offered 

for Sale 152 ^'^ 

Views of a Typical Holstein Country Home 188 ^^ 
Main Stairway in the American Embassy, 

Berlin 210 / 

Ambassadors Sharp and Gerard, Paris, Feb- 
ruary, 1917 240 ^^ 

The " Infanta Isabella " 274^^ 

Photograph Taken after Banquet Given Am- 
bassador Gerard on January 6th, 191 7 . 304 v 

xi 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The Crown Prince and Crown Princess . . 316 ' 

Reproduction of Zeppelin Post Card of] Pa- 
triotic Sentiment 336 "^ 

Zeppelin Post Card Sold in Germany . . . 336 >^ 



2m 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 



FACE TO FACE WITH 
KAISERISM 

CHAPTER I 

PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER AND SOMETHING OF 
THE KING BUSINESS 

npO the American mind the Kaiser is the per- 
-'- sonification of Germany. He is the arch 
enemy upon whom the world places the responsi- 
bility for this most terrible of all wars. I have sat 
face to face with him in the palace at Berlin where, 
as the personal representative and envoy of the 
President of the United States, I had the honor of 
expressing the viewpoint of a great nation. I have 
seen him in the field as the commanding general of 
mighty forces, but I also have seen him in the neu- 
tral countries through which I passed on my return 
home and in my own beloved land — in the evidence 
of intrigue and plotting which this militaristic 
monarch has begotten and which is to-day "the 
Thing," as President Wilson calls it, which has 
brought the American people face to face with 
kaiserism in the greatest conflict of all history. 

What manner of man is he? What is his char- 
acter ? How much was he responsible for what has 

13 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

happened — how much his General Staff? What 
of the Crown Prince and what of the neutral peo- 
ples and their rulers whom Germany has intimidated 
and would fain subjugate if it suited her purpose? 
These are the questions I shall attempt to answer 
out of my experiences in Germany and my contacts 
with the rulers of other countries in my journeys 
to and from Berlin and Washington. 

To illustrate the craft of the Kaiser, I believe I 
can perform no better service to Americans than to 
reveal an incident which has not hitherto been pub- 
lished. It occurred at the New Year's reception of 
1914 when the Ambassadors of all the foreign coun- 
tries represented at the German court, were ranged 
in a large room at the Palace. They stood about 
six feet apart in the order of their residence in 
Berlin. The Kaiser and his aides entered the room, 
and the Emperor spoke a few minutes to each en- 
voy. He tarried longest with the Turkish Ambas- 
sador and myself, thereby arousing the curiosity 
of the other diplomats who suspected that the Kai- 
ser did more than merely exchange the greetings of 
the season. He did. 

What the German Emperor said to me interests 
every American because it shows his subtlety of 
purpose. The Kaiser talked at length to me about 
what he called Japan s designs on the United States. 
He warned me that Mexico ivas full of Japanese 
spies and an army of Japanese colonels. He also 
spoke about France, saying that he had made every 
effort to make up with France, that he had ex- 
tended his hand to that country but that the French 

14 



PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 

had refused to meet his overtures, that he was 
through and would not try again to heal the breach 
between France and Germany! 

All this was in 1914, six months before the out- 
break of the European War. Little did I know then 
what the purpose was back of that conversation, but 
it is clear now that the Emperor wished to have the 
government of the United States persuaded through 
me that he was really trying to keep Europe at peace 
and that the responsibility for what was going to 
happen would be on France. The German is so 
skilful at intrigue that he seeks even in advance 
of an expected offensive to lay the foundation for 
self-justification. 

But the reference to Japan and alleged hostility 
against us on the part of fanciful hordes of Jap- 
anese in Mexico made me wonder at the time. 
There were many evidences subsequent to that New 
Year's Day reception of an attempt to alienate us 
from Japan. As a climax to it all, as a clarification 
of what the Emperor had in mind, came the famous 
Zimmermann note, the instructions to the German 
Minister in Mexico to align both Japan and Mexico 
against us when we entered the war against Ger- 
many! 

Plotting and intriguing for power and mastery! 
Such is the business of absolute rulers. 

I believe that had the old Austrian Kaiser lived a 
little while longer, the prolongation of his life would 
have been most disastrous both for Austria and 
'Hungary. I believe after the death of Franz Fer- 
dinand at Sarajevo and after a year of war the 

15 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

German Emperor and autocracy were brooding 
over a plan according to which, on the death of 
Francis Joseph, the successor should be allowed to 
rule only as King or Giand-Duke of Austria, the 
title of Emperor of Austria to disappear and Ger- 
man Princes to be placed upon the thrones of Hun- 
gary and of a new kingdom of Bohemia. These 
and the king or grand-duke of Austria were to 
be subject-monarchs under the German Kaiser, 
who was thus to revive an empire, if not greater, 
at least more powerful, than che empires of Charle- 
magne and of Charles the Fifth. Many public ut- 
terances of the German Kaiser show that trend of 
mind. 

Emperor William deliberately wrote and pub- 
lished, for instance, such a statement as this: 
"From childhood I have been influenced by five 
men, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Theo- 
doric II, Frederick the Great and Napoleon. 
Each of these men dreamed a dream of world em- 
pire. They failed. I have dreamed a dream of 
German world empire and my mailed fist shall suc- 
ceed." 

Could any declaration of a life's ambition be 
more explicit? It seems impossible for human am- 
bition to stand still. Either a man loses all stimulus 
of self and becomes as spiritless as a fagged animal 
or ambition drives him always on — he is never con- 
tent with any success achieved. The millionaire 
to whom the first million, when he was a boy, seem- 
ed the extreme limit of human wealth and desire, 
presses on insatiably with the first million in his 

i6 



PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 

pocket, more restless, more dissatisfied, than the 
hungry farmer's boy who first carries his ambitions 
to the great city. 

When these zealous, scheming men gain the pow- 
er of kingship, they usually bring disaster to their 
country. Their subjects find no compensation in 
the personal ambitions which hurry a nation into 
the miseries of war. Better Charles II, dallying 
with his ringletted mistresses, than an Alexander 
the Great; better Henry the Fourth of France, the 
"ever-green gallant," than Frederick the Great, 
bathing his people in blood. "Happy nations have 
no history." 

William the Second, the present German Em- 
peror, might well be called the Restless Emperor. 
He is never satisfied to remain more than a 
few days in any place or in any occupation. He 
commands his armies in person. He has won dis- 
tinction as a writer and a public speaker. He is an 
excellent shot. He has composed music, written 
verses, superintended the production of a ballet, 
painted a picture; the beautiful Byzantine chapel 
in the Castle of Posen shows his genius for archi- 
tecture; and, clothed in a clergyman's surplice, he 
has preached a sermon in Jerusalem. What ruler 
in all history has exhibited such extraordinary ver- 
satility? 

In my conversations with the Emperor I have 
been struck by his knowledge of other countries, 
lands which he had never visited. He was familiar 
not only with their manners, customs, industries 
and public men, but with their commercial prob- 

17 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

lems. Through his conversation one can see the 
keen eye of the Hanseatic trader looking with eager 
envy on the trade of a rival merchant. The Em- 
peror, incidentally, while instinctively commercial, 
has an inborn contempt, if not for the law, at least 
for lawyers. In October, 191 5, for instance, he re- 
marked to me, "This is a lawyers' war, Asquith 
and Lloyd George in England, Poincare and Briand 
in France." 

In appearance and conversation Emperor Wil- 
liam is very manly. His voice is strong, with a ring 
in it. He is a good rider. Following the German 
custom, he puts on his nightshirt every afternoon 
after lunch and sleeps for two hours — for the Ger- 
man is more devoted to the siesta than the Spaniard 
or Mexican. The hours of the Berlin Foreign Of- 
fice, for example, were from eleven to one and from 
four to eight. After a heavy lunch at one o'clock 
all the officials took a nap for an hour or two. Also, 
the hours of the bank where I did business were 
from ten to one and from four till six. This meant 
that after six o'clock the clerks had to sit until per- 
haps eight making up the books for the day. 

In 19 16, the Olympic games were to have taken 
place at Berlin, and in September, 1913, before sail- 
ing for Germany, I attended a luncheon at the New 
York Athletic Club, given by President Page, with 
the members of the German Commission who had 
come to America to study athletics and to see what 
could be done in Germany so that the Germans 
could make a good showing at the games in their 
own city. 

18 



PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 

After my arrival in Germany one of the members 
of this commission told me that it was impossible, 
he believed, to organise the Germans as athletes 
until German meal and business hours had been 
changed. He said that with us in America young 
men leaving business at four-thirty, five or five- 
thirty, had time in which to exercise before their 
evening meal, but that in Germany the young men 
ate so much at the midday meal that they required 
their siesta after it, and that they did not leave 
their offices until so late in the evening that exer- 
cise and practice were impossible. 

On the Emperor's table his wine glasses or rather 
cups are of silver. Possibly this is because he has 
been forbidden by his physician to drink wine. The 
Germans maintain the old-fashioned custom of 
drinking healths at meals. Some one far down the 
table will lift his glass, look at you and smile. You 
are then expected to lift your glass and drink with 
him and then both bow and smile over the glasses. 
As the Emperor must reciprocate with every one 
present, his champagne and wine are put in silver 
cups in order that those drinking wine with him do 
not see that he consumes no appreciable quantity 
of alcoholic liquor on the occasion of each health 
drinking. Some people in America may have often 
wished for a similar device. 

The Emperor is out of uniform only on rare oc- 
casions. Occasionally, when in a foreign country, 
he has appeared in civilian dress, as shown in the 
accompanying photograph, taken in 19 lo at the 
small town of Odde in Norway, where he had land- 

19 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

ed from his yacht. He appears to much better ad- 
vantage in uniform than in civilian attire. Although 
uniformed while at sea as an Admiral, his favourite' 
uniform is really that of the Hussars. In this pic- 
ture he is accompanied by Baron von Treutler, 
Prussian Minister to Bavaria and Foreign Office 
representative with the Kaiser. Von Treutler is a 
German of the world. I met him at the Great Gen- 
eral Headquarters, at the end of April, 1916, when 
the submarine question was being discussed. He 
came to dinner several times at the Chancellor's 
house, undoubtedly reporting back what was said to 
the Emperor, and I believe that his voice was 
against the resumption of ruthless submarine war- 
fare and in favour of peace with America. Shortly 
after this period he fell into disfavour and went back 
to occupy his post of Minister in Munich. 

In conversation, the Emperor reminds one very 
much of Roosevelt, talking with the same energy, 
the same violence of gesture and of voice so charac- 
teristic of our great ex-President. When the Em- 
peror talks all his attention is given to you and all 
his mental energy is concentrated on the conversa- 
tion. In this violence of manner and voice he seems 
not at all German. The average German is neither 
exuberant nor soft-spoken. 

His favourite among his ancestors is William of 
Orange. Once he attended a fancy-dress ball in 
costume and make-up copied from the well-known 
picture of that Prince. The Emperor is strongly 
built and is about five feet nine inches tall. He sits 
well on his horse and walks, too, with head erect and 

20 



PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 

shoulders thrown back — a picture of military pre- 
cision. 

A friend of mine who was present at Kiel with 
his yacht, in 19 lo, tells me that when all the yachts 
and \/arships had been assembled along the long 
narrow waterway which constitutes that harbour, 
with the crews lined up on deck or manning the 
yards, with bands crashing and banners floating, 
the Hohensollefn slowly steamed into the harbour 
and passed lazily and majestically through the wait- 
ing ships. Alone on the upper bridge stood the 
Monarch, attired in full military uniform, with 
white coat and tight breeches, high top boots, shin- 
ing silver breastplate and silver helmet, surmounted 
by aix eagle, the dress of the Prussian Guard Regi- 
ment so dear to those who portray romantic and 
kingly roles upon the stage, a figure on whom all 
eyes were fixed, as splendid as that of Lohengrin, 
drawn by his fairy swan, coming to rescue the un- 
justly accused Princess. And, alas, the Germans 
like all this pomp and splendour. It appeals to some- 
thing in the German heart and seems to create a 
feeling of afifection and humility in the German 
breast. 

When I talked at length one day with President 
Wilson on my visit to America in October, 1916, 
he remarked, half to himself, in surprise at my tale 
of war, "Why does all this horror come on the 
world? What causes it?" "Mr. President," I an- 
swered, "it is the king business." 

I did not mean nominal kings as harmless as those 
of Spain and England. I was thinking of the pow- 

21 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

erful monarchs. A German republic would never 
have embarked on this war; a German Congress 
would have thought twice before sending their own 
sons to death in a deliberate effort to enslave other 
peoples. In a free Germany teachers, ministers and 
professors would not have taught the necessity of 
war. What German merchant in a free Germany 
would have thought that all the trade of the East, 
all the riches of Bagdad and Cairo and Mosul could 
compensate him for the death of his first-born or 
restore the blind eyes to the youngest son who now 
crouches, cowering, over the fire, awaiting death? 
For there was no trade necessity for this war. I 
know of no place in the world where German mer- 
chants were not free to trade. The disclosures of 
war have shown how German commerce had pene- 
trated every land, to an extent unknown to the best 
informed. If the German merchants wanted this 
war in order to gain a German monopoly of the 
world's trade, then they are rightly suffering from 
the results of overweening covetousness. 

Experts in insanity say that the Roman Emperors 
as soon as they attained the rule of the world were 
made mad by the possession of that stupendous 
power. The sceptre of Emperor William is mighty. 
No more autocratic influence proceeds from any 
other monarch or ruler. But you will say how about 
our President in time of war? Great power can 
safely be given to a president. Our presidents have 
all risen from the ranks. Usually they have gone 
through the school of hard knocks. And there are 
ways of keeping them abreast of the people. 

22 



PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 

It is told that hidden from public view, crouched 
down in the chariot in which the successful Roman 
pro-consul or general drove triumphantly through 
the crowded streets of Rome, was a slave celebrated 
for his impertinence, whose duty it was to make the 
one honoured feel that, after all, he was nothing 
more than an ordinary mortal blessed with a certain 
amount of good luck. Probably as the chariot passed 
by the forum the slave would say, after a thunder- 
ous burst of applause from the populace: "Do not 
take that applause too seriously. That is the T. 
Quintus Cassius Association whose chief received a 
hundred sesterces from your brother-in-law yester- 
day, on account, with a promise of a hundred more 
in case the Association's cheers seemed loud and 
sincere." 

So in America the press, serious and comic, takes 
the place of the humble slave and throws enough 
cold water on the head of any temporarily successful 
American to reduce it to normal proportions. Be- 
sides, the President knows that some day he must 
return to the ranks, live again with his neighbours, 
seek out the threads of a lost law practice or eke out 
a livelihood on the Chautauqua circuit in the dis- 
comfort of tiny hotels, travelling in upper berths in- 
stead of private cars and eating on lunch stools in 
small stations instead of in the sumptuous surround- 
ings of presidential luxury. These are sobering 
prospects. 

Kings, on the other hand, come to look on their 
subjects as toys. A post-card popular in Austria 
and Germany showed the old Emperor, Francis Jo- 

^2> 



FACE TO FACK WITH KAISERISM 

seph, seated at a table with a little great-grand- 
nephew on his knee, teaching the child to move toy 
soldiers about on the boards; and it is unfortunate- 
ly true that the same youngster — should the system 
of the Central Empires be perpetuated — will be able 
to move his subjects across the map of Europe just 
as he did the toy soldiers on his great-grand-uncle's 
table. He will be able to tear men from their work 
and their homes, to seize great scientists, great 
chemists, great inventors — men who may be on the 
eve of discoveries or remedies destined to rid the 
human race of the scourge of cancer or the white 
plague — and send them to death in the marshes of 
Macedonia or the fastnesses of the Carpathians be- 
cause some fellow-king or emperor has deceived or 
outwitted him. 

In a monarchy all subjects seem the personal 
property of the monarch and all expressions of 
power become personal. This extends throughout 
all countries ruled by royalty. 

When, for example, a member of the royal fam- 
ily dies, even in another country, it must be lament- 
ed by the court circle of other lands. Here is the 
official notice sent to all diplomats and members of 
the Imperial German Court on the occasion of the 
death of the Queen of Sweden. 

"The Court goes into mourning today for Her Majesty 
the Queen-Mother of Sweden for three weeks up to and 
including the 19th of January, 19 14. 

"Ladies wear black silk dresses, for the first fourteen 
days, including January 12th, with black hair ornaments, 

24 



PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 

black gloves, black fans and black jewelry; the last eight 
days with white hair ornaments, grey gloves, white fans 
and pearls. 

"Gentlemen wear the whole time a black band on the 
left sleeve. Civilians wear with the embroidered coat, 
during the first fourteen days, including January 12th, 
on occasions of Grand Gala, black buckles and swords 
with black sheathes. During the last eight days bright 
buckles; on occasions of 'Half Gala' gold or silver em- 
broidered trousers of the color of the uniform and in 
the one as in the other case gold or silver embroidered 
hat with white plume; with the 'small' uniform, however, 
black trousers (or knee-breeches, black silk stockings, 
shoes with black bows and the 'three-cornered' hat with 
black plume). During the first fourteen days gentlemen 
wear black woolen vests and black gloves, in the last eight 
days black silk vests and grey gloves, 

"Berlin, December 30, 191 3. 

"The Ober-Ceremonienmeister. 
"Graf A. Eulenburg. 

"By command of His Majesty the Emperor, mourn- 
ing will be suspended for New Year's Day and the 17th 
and 1 8th of January." 

So, it is apparent what a close corporation all the 
royal families make and the peoples are simply 
viewed as the personal property of the ruling 
princes. In his telegram which the German Kaiser 
wrote to President Wilson on August tenth, observe 
that all is personal. The Kaiser says, "I telegraphed 
to His Majesty the King, personally, but that if, etc., 
I would employ my troops elsewhere. . . . His 
Majesty answered that he thought my offer. . . .** 

25 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

He speaks of the King of the Belgians ''having re- 
fused my petition for a free passage." He refers to 
"my Ambassador in London." 

This telegram shows, on the other hand, another 
thing, — the great ability of the Kaiser. Undoubt- 
edly he knew why I was coming to see him — to pre- 
sent the offer of mediation of President Wilson — 
but from our conversation I do not think that he 
had even in his mind prepared the answer, which 
sets forth his position in entering the war. 

He said, ''Wait a moment, I shall write something 
for the President." Then taking the telegraph 
blanks lying on the table, he wrote rapidly and 
fluently. It was a message in a foreign language, 
and, whatever we may think of its content, at any 
rate it is clear, concise, consecutive and forceful. 

The personal touch runs through that extraordi- 
nary series of telegrams in the famous "Willy- 
Nicky" correspondence between Kaiser Wilhelm 
and the last of the Romanoffs, discovered in Petro- 
grad by Herman Bernstein. These reveal, more- 
over, the surpassing craft of the German Kaiser. 
He was the master schemer. Touting for German 
trade, always for his advantage, he twists the poor 
half-wit of the Winter Palace like a piece of straw. 

Emperor William was not satisfied with a quiet 
life as patron of trade. As he studied the portraits 
of his ancestors, he felt that they gazed at him with 
reproachful eyes, demanded that he add, as did 
they, to the domains of the Hohenzollerns, that he 
return from war in triumph at the head of a victori- 

26 



PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 

ous army with the keys of fallen cities borne before 
him in conquering march. 

One-tenth of Frederick the Great's people fell, 
but to the poverty-stricken peasant woman of Prus- 
sia, lamenting her husband and dead sons, did it 
matter that the rich province of Silesia had been 
added to the Prussian Crown? What was it to 
that broken mother whether the Silesian peasants 
acknowledged the Prussian King or the Austrian 
Empress ? Despots both. And what countless serfs 
fell in the wars between the King and the Empress ! 
I once asked von Jagow when this war would end. 
He answered, "An old history of the Seven Years' 
War concludes, 'The King and the Empress were 
tired of war, so they made peace.' That is how this 
war will end." Will it? Will it end in a draw, to 
be resumed when some king feels the war fever on 
him? No, this war must end despots, and with 
them all wars! 

It is all such a matter of personal whim. For in- 
stance before Bulgaria entered the war on the side 
of Germany, even the best informed Germans pre- 
dicted that King Ferdinand would never join Ger- 
many because of an incident which occurred in the 
Royal Palace of Berlin. This is how it happened : 

It is the custom for one monarch to make his pals 
in the King business officers of his army or navy. 
Thus the German Emperor was General Field Mar- 
shal and Proprietor of the 34th "William the first, 
German Emperor and King of Prussia" Infantry, 
and of the 7th "WiUiam the Second, German Em- 
peror and King of Prussia" Hussars, in the Austro- 

27 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Hungarian Army; Chief of the ''King Frederick 
William III St. Petersburg Life Guards," the 85th 
"Viburg" Infantry and the 13th "Narva" Hussars, 
and the "Grodno" Hussars of the Guard, in the 
Russian Army; Field Marshal in British Army; 
Hon. Admiral of the British Fleet and Colonel-in- 
Chief 1st Dragoons; General in the Swedish Army 
and Flag Admiral of the Fleet ; Hon. Admiral of the 
Norwegian and Danish Fleets ; Admiral of the Rus- 
sian Fleet; Hon. Captain-General in the Spanish 
Army and Hon. Colonel of the nth "Naumancia" 
Spanish Dragoons; and Hon. Admiral of the Greek 
Fleet. 

The King of Bulgaria was Chief of the 4th Thu- 
ringia Infantry Regiment No. 72, in the Prussian 
Army. As per custom, on a visit to Berlin he donned 
his uniform of the Thuringian Infantry. He had 
put on a little weight, and military unmentionables, 
be it known, are notoriously tight. So as he leaned 
far out of the Palace window to admire the passing 
troops, he presented a mark so tempting that the 
Emperor, in jovial mood, was impelled to administer 
a resounding spank on the sacred seat of the Czar 
of all the Balkans. Instead of taking the slap in 
the same jovial spirit in which it was given the Czar 
Ferdinand, a little jealous of the self-assumed title 
of Czar, became furiously angry — so angry that 
even the old diplomats of the Metternich school be- 
lieved for a time that he never would forgive the 
whack and even might refuse to join Germany. But 
Czar Ferdinand, believing in the military power of 
Germany, cast his already war-worn people in the 

28 



PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 

war against the Allies, much to the regret of many 
Bulgarian statesmen who, having been educated at 
Robert College, near Constantinople, a college 
founded and maintained by Americans, and having 
imbibed somewhat of the American spirit there, 
were not over-pleased to think of themselves ar- 
rayed against the United States of America. 

But there is no monarch in all Europe who is more 
wily than Czar Ferdinand. At a great feast in Bul- 
garia at which Emperor William was present. Czar 
Ferdinand toasted the Emperor in Latin and alluded 
to him as ''Miles Gloriosus" — which all present took 
to mean "glorious soldier"; but the exact Latin 
meaning of ''gloriosus" is "glorious" in its first 
meaning and "boastful" in its second, a meaning 
well known in Berlin where, at the "Little Theatre," 
in a series of plays of all ages, the "Miles Gloriosus" 
of Plautus had just been presented — a boastful, 
conceited soldier, the "Miles Gloriosus," the chief 
character of the comedy. 

Nothing illustrates more vividly the belief of the 
royal families of the Central Empires in their God- 
given right to rule the plain people than those few 
words of Maximilian written before his ill-fated 
expedition to Mexico. Speaking of the Palace at 
Caserta, near Naples, he wrote, "The monumental 
stairway is worthy of Majesty. What can be finer 
than to imagine the sovereign placed at its head, 
resplendent in the midst of these marble pillars, — 
to fancy this monarch, like a God, graciously per- 
mitting the approach of human beings. The crowd 
surges upward. The King vouchsafes a gracious 

29 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

glance, but from a very lofty elevation. All power- 
ful, imperial, he makes one step towards them with a 
smile of infinite condescension. Could Charles V, 
could Maria Theresa appear thus at the head of this 
ascending stair, who would not bow their heads be- 
fore that majestic, God-given power?" 

What was the condition of the people under 
Maria Theresa, whom Maximilian spoke of as 
possessing a power that, according to him, was so 
God-given no one could fail to bow the head 
before her majestic presence? The peasants, 
under her rule, were practically slaves, as they could 
not leave the lord's lands nor even marry without 
his permission, nor could they bring their children 
up to any profession other than that of labourer. In 
other words, the children of the slave must remain 
slaves. 

Poor Maximilian ! He was a brother of the late 
Emperor Francis Joseph and a member of that 
Kaiserbund and royal system which, while America 
was busy with domestic difficulties between the 
North and South, sought to wrest from Mexico 
her liberty. I wonder if the Mexicans have forgot- 
ten the incident and its implications. 

But one-man power always fails in the end. No 
man, king or president, whatever he may himself 
think, has a brain all powerful and all knowing. 
There is wisdom in counsel. Too much of some 
favourite dish may lead to indigestion and that to 
bad judgment at a critical time and disaster. Na- 
poleon III, just before 1870, was suffering from a 
wasting disease and so allowed himself to be ruled 

30 



PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 

by the beautiful, narrow, fascinating, foolish Span- 
ish Empress whom he gave to the French in a 
moment of passion because, as she said to him, "The 
way to her room lay through the church door." 
Colonel Stoffel, the French Military Attache to the 
Berlin Embassy, wrote confidentially report after 
report to the Emperor telling him of the immense 
military strength of Prussia and of her readiness 
for immediate war. But most of these reports were 
afterwards found unopened in the desk of the dot- 
ing, sick and fallen Emperor. 

For, after all, however divine the King, Emperor 
or Kaiser may consider himself, he is but a vulnera- 
ble human being — and no accident of birth should 
give even a small number of people on this earth 
into the hands of a single mortal. 



31 



CHAPTER II 

WHO DOKs The: kaiser's thinking and who de- 
cided ON THE BREAK WITH AMERICA? 

"DECAUSE the German Emperor possesses tal- 
ents of no mean order, because of his fiery 
energy, because of the charm of his conversation 
and personality, his ambitions for world conquest 
are most dangerous to the peace of the world. 

Certainly of all the ruling houses of the world, 
the Hohenzollerns have shown themselves the most 
able, and of the six sons of the Kaiser there is not 
one who is unable or unworthy from the autocratic 
standpoint to carry on the traditions of the house. 
They are all young men who in any field of human 
endeavour are more than a match for men of their 
age, and by reason of these qualities, so rare in 
kings and princes, it has been easy to arouse a great 
feeling of devotion for the royal house of Prus- 
sia among all classes in Germany, with the possible 
exception of the Social Democrats. The other kings 
and princes of Germany have been overshadowed, 
mere puppets in the king business, by the surpass- 
ing talents of the Hohenzollerns, and so the task 
of those who, in Germany and out, hope for that 
evolution towards liberalism or even democracy 
which alone can make the nations of the world feel 

32 



WHO DOES THE KAISER'S THINKING? 

safe in making peace with Germany, is beset with 
numerous difficulties. 

Before the war the Emperor turned much of his 
enterprising talent into peaceful channels, into the 
development of commercial and industrial Germany. 
No one has a greater respect for wealth and com- 
mercial success than the Emperor. He would have 
made a wonderful success as a man of business. He 
ought to be the richest person in the Empire, but the 
militaristic system which he fostered gave that dis- 
tinction to another. For the richest person in Ger- 
many before the war was Frau Krupp-Bohlen, 
daughter of the late manufacturer of cannon. She 
inherited control of the factories and the greater 
part of the fortune of her father and was rated at 
about $75,000,000. It was a contest between 
Prince Henckel-Donnersmarck and the Emperor for 
second place, each being reputed to possess about 
sixty to sixty-five million dollars. Most of the Em- 
peror's wealth is in landed estates, and of these he 
has, I believe, about sixty scattered through the Em- 
pire. The Emperor is credited with being a large 
stockholder in both the Krupp works and the Ham- 
burg-American Line. What a sensation it would 
make in this country were the President to become 
a large stockholder in Bethlehem Steel or the Win- 
chester Arms Company ! 

The earnings of the Krupp's factory since the 
war have been immense and doubtless the fortune 
of the Krupp heiress since then has more than 
doubled. The subscriptions to war loans and war 
charities, thrown by Frau Krupp-Bohlen and the 

33 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Krupp directors as sops to public opinion, are mere 
nothings to the fat earnings made by that renowned 
factory in this war. 

And what a sensation, too, would be caused in 
America if the Bethlehem Steel Company or the 
United States Steel Corporation were to purchase 
newspapers or take over The Associated Press in 
order to control public opinion! Yet the German 
nation stands by, apathetic, propagandised to a 
standstill, stuffed and fed by news handed them by 
the Krupps and the alliance of six great industrial 
iron and steel companies of western Germany. 

A question which interests every inhabitant of 
the world to-day is, where does the ultimate power 
reside in Germany? 

Where is the force which controls the country? 
The Reichstag, of course, has no real power; the 
twenty-five ruling princes of Germany, voting in 
the Bundesrat through their representatives, con- 
trol the Reichstag, and the Chancellor is not respon- 
sible to either but only to the Emperor. 

Consider, for a moment, the personality of von 
Bethmann-Hollweg, Chancellor of the Empire for 
eight or nine years. He lacked both determination 
and decision. Lovable, good, kind, respected, the 
Chancellor, to a surprising degree, was minus that 
quality which we call ''punch." He never led, but 
followed. He sought always to find out first which 
side of the question seemed likely to win, — where 
the majority would stand. Usually he poised him- 

34 



WHO DOES THE KAISER»S THINKING? 

self on middle ground. He could not have been the 
ultimate power in the State. 

I have a feeling that the Kaiser himself always 
felt in some vague way that his luck lay with Amer- 
ica, and I imagine that he himself was against any- 
thing that might lead to a break with this country. 
What, then, was the mysterious power which 
changed, for instance, the policy of the German 
Empire towards America and ordered unrestricted 
submarine war at the risk of bringing against the 
Empire a rich and powerful nation of over a hun- 
dred million population ? 

The Foreign Office did not have this decision. 
Its members, made up of men who had travelled in 
other countries, who knew the latent power of 
America, did not advise this step — with the excep- 
tion, however, of Zimmermann, who, carried away 
by his sudden elevation, and by the glamour of per- 
sonal contact with the Emperor, the Princes and the 
military chiefs, yielded to the arguments of mili- 
tary expediency. 

The one force in Germany which ultimately 
decides every great question, except the fate of its 
own head, is the Great General Staff. 

On one side of the Konigs-Platz, in Berlin, stands 
the great building of the Reichstag, floridly deco- 
rated, glittering with gold, surrounded by statues 
and filled, during the sessions of the Reichstag, with 
a crowd of representatives who do not represent 
and who, like monkeys in a cage, jibber and debate 
questions which they have no power to decide. 
Across the square and covering the entire block in 

35 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

a building that resembles in external appearance a 
jail, built of dark red brick without ornament or 
display, is the home of the Great General Staff. 
This institution has its own spies, its own secret 
service, its own newspaper censors. Here the picked 
officers of the German army, the inheritors of the 
power of von Moltke, work industriously. Apart 
from the people of Germany, they wield the supreme 
power of the State and when the Staff decides a 
matter of foreign policy or even an internal meas- 
ure, that decision is final. 

The peculiar relations of the Emperor to the 
Great General Staff make it possible for him to dis- 
miss in disgrace a head of the Staff who has failed. 
But at all times the Kaiser is more or less controlled 
in his action by the Staff as a whole and at a time 
when the chief of the Great General Staff is suc- 
cessful, the latter, even on questions of foreign pol- 
icy, claims the right then to make a decision which 
the Emperor may find it difficult to disregard. This 
is because in an autocratic government, as in any 
other, personality counts for much. Von Tirpitz 
controlled all departments of the navy, although 
only at the head of one. The Ludendorff-Hinden- 
burg combination, especially if backed by Macken- 
sen, can bend the will of the Emperor. 

Yet while the head of the Great General Staff 
may fall, the system always remains. An unknown, 
mysterious power it is, unchanging, and relentless, 
a power that watches over the German army with 
unseen eyes. It seeks always additions to its own 
ranks from those young officers who have dis- 

36 





THE IRON CROSS. IN THE EXPECTATION OF A SHORT WAR 
THOUSANDS OF THESE CROSSES WERE DISTRIBUTED IN 
THE FIRST MONTHS OF THE WAR AND THE PRECEDENT 
THUS ESTABLISHED HAS LED TO THE GIVING OF PERHAPS 
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF THESE DECORATIONS 



WHO DOES THE KAISER'S THINKING? 

tinguished themselves by their talents in the profes- 
sion of arms. What does it mean to them? 

It is January twenty-seventh, the birthday of the 
Kaiser in a German garrison town. The ofiicers of 
the regiment are assembled in the mess-hall, the 
regimental band plays the national air of Prussia, 
''Heil Dir im Sieger Kranz" (Hail, thou, in the con- 
queror's wreath). (The music is familiar to us 
because we sing it to the words of "America." The 
British sing the air to the words of '*God Save the 
King." This music was originally wTitten for Louis- 
XIV.) The health of the Emperor is proposed and 
drunk with "Hurrahs" and again "Hurrahs," and 
then comes a telegram from Berlin announcing the 
promotions and decorations granted to some of the 
officers of the regiment: the most envied of all is 
that younger officer, perhaps the student among 
them, who receives the laconic despatch telling him 
that he is detailed to the Great General Staff ! 

Then commences for the young officer a life of 
almost monastic devotion. No amusements, no so- 
cial obligations or entertainments must interfere in 
the slightest with his earnest work in that plain 
building of mystery which so calmly, and with such 
mock modesty, faces the garish home of the Reichs- 
tag on the Konigs-Platz, in Berlin. 

Who decided on the break with America ? It was 
not the Chancellor, notoriously opposed; it was not 
the Foreign Office, nor the Reichstag, nor the 
Princes of Germany who decided to brave the con- 
sequences of a rupture with the United States on 
the submarine question. It was not the Emoeror; 

37 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

but a personality of great power of persuasion. It 
was Ludendorff, Quartermaster General, chief aid 
and brains to Hindenburg, Chief of the Great Gen- 
eral Staff, who decided upon this step. 

Unquestionably a party in the navy, undoubtedly 
von Tirpitz himself, backed by the navy and by 
many naval officers and the Naval League, advocat- 
ed the policy and promised all Germany peace within 
three months after it was adopted; unquestionably 
public opinion made by the Krupps and the League 
of Six (the great iron and steel companies), desir- 
ing annexation of the coal and iron lands of France, 
demanded this as a quick road to peace. But it was 
the deciding vote of the Great General Staff that 
finally embarked the German nation on this dan- 
gerous course. 

I do not think the Emperor himself, unless backed 
by the whole public opinion of Germany, would dare 
to withstand the Great General Staff which he him- 
self creates. They are so much his devotees that 
they would overrule him in what they consider his 
interest. 

Whatever thinking the Emperor does nowadays 
is more or less on his own account. There is to-day 
no shining favourite who has his ear to the exclu- 
sion of others. The last known favourite was 
Prince Max Egon von Fiirstenberg, a man now 
about fifty- four years old, tall, handsome, possessed 
at one time of great wealth and a commanding posi- 
tion in Austria as well as Germany, with the privi- 
lege of citizenship in both countries. The Prince in 
his capacity as Grand Marshal accompanied the Em- 

38 



WHO DOES THE KAISER'S THINKING? 

peror, walking in his train as the latter entered the 
White Hall at a great ball early in the winter of 
19 14. The Emperor was stopping at the Prince's 
palace in southern Germany at Donnaueschingen 
when the affair at Zabern and the cutting down 
of the lame shoemaker there shook the political 
and military foundations of the German Empire. 
Prince Max together with Prince Hohenlohe, 
Duke of Ugest, embarked, however, on a career 
of vast speculation in an association known as 
the Princes' Trust. They built, for instance, the 
great Hotel Esplanade in Berlin, and a hotel of the 
same name in Hamburg, and an enormous com- 
bined beer restaurant, theatre and moving picture 
hall on the Nollendorff Platz in Berlin. They or- 
ganised banks, and the name of the princely house 
of Fiirstenberg appeared as an advertisement for 
light beer. They even, through their interest in a 
department store on the east end of the Leipziger 
Strasse, sold pins and stockings and ribbons to the 
working classes of Berlin. As this top-heavy struc- 
ture of foolish business enterprise tumbled, the fa- 
vour of Prince Max at the Imperial Court fell with 
it. For the Emperor never brooks failure. 

During the present war Von Gontard, related by 
marriage, I believe, to brewer Busch in St. Louis; 
von Treutler, who represented the Foreign Office; 
von Falkenhayn, for a while head of the Great Gen- 
eral Staff and Minister of War, and the Prince of 
Pless, and von Plessen with several minor adju- 
tants, have constituted the principal figures in the 
surroundings of the Emperor. Falkenhayn fell be- 

39 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

cause of his failure in the attack of Verdun, ordered 
by him or for which he was the responsible com- 
mander. Von Treutler probably told the truth ; he 
was against the breaking of the submarine pledges 
to America ; and Prince Pless, who remains still in 
favour, never took a decided stand on any of these 
questions. Prince Pless, as Prince Max was, is 
rich. His fortune before the war, represented 
mostly by great landed estates in Silesia, mines, etc., 
amounted approximately to thirty million dollars. 
His wife is an Englishwoman, once celebrated as 
one of the great beauties of London, daughter of 
Colonel and Mrs. Cornwallis-West, and sister of the 
Duchess of Westminster and Cornwallis-West, for- 
merly married to Lady Randolph Churchill, and 
now the husband of Mrs. Patrick Campbell, the 
well-known actress. And therefore the position of 
Princess Pless has not been enviable during this 
war. 

Emperor William does not, like many kings and 
dictators, confine himself in his search for gen- 
eral information regarding men and conditions to 
the reports of a few persons. He always has been 
accessible, seeking even to meet strangers, not 
merely his own people but foreigners, thus es- 
caping the penalty of those rulers who shut them- 
selves up and who have all their information and 
thoughts coloured for them by the preferences and 
desires of prejudiced counsellors. 

The chiefs of the army are always in close touch 
with the Kaiser, but he is consulted on army com- 

40 



WHO DOES THE KAISER'S THINKING? 

mands and promotions much less than on civil and 
even naval promotions. 

Always with him is the head of the Civil Cabinet, 
who advises with the Emperor on all appointments 
and promotions on the civil side of the Government, 
helping even to make and unmake Ambassadors and 
Chancellors. Admiral von Mueller, head of the 
Marine Cabinet, is constantly in the Emperor's com- 
pany. He is a shrewd, capable, reasonable man ; for 
a long time Admiral von Mueller was against taking 
the chance of war with America and perhaps, even 
to the end, persisted in this course. After the fall 
of von Tirpitz, von Mueller acquired more real 
power. But in a sense it is incorrect to speak of the 
forced retirement of von Tirpitz as a ''fall," be- 
cause from his retirement he was able to carry on 
such a campaign in favour of "ruthless" submarine 
war that the mass of the people, Reichstag deputies, 
the General Staff, and all came over to his point of 
view and von Bethmann-Hollweg, who had brought 
about his dismissal, was forced officially to adopt 
the policy first sponsored by this skilful old sea-dog 
and politician. 



41 



CHAPTER III 

WHO SANK the: "LUSITANIA"? 

XXT'HO is responsible for the sinking of the Lu- 
^^ sitania, for the deliberate murder which has 
always remained deep in the consciousness of every 
American, and which at the outset turned this great 
nation against Germany? 

In the first place there was no mistake — ^no ques- 
tion of orders exceeded or disobeyed. Count von 
Bernstorff frankly, boldly, defiantly, and impudently 
advertised to the world, with the authority of the 
German Government, that the attempt to sink the 
Lusitania would be made. The Foreign Ofifice, no 
doubt, acquainted him with the new policy. Von 
Tirpitz, then actual head of the Navy Department 
and virtual head of the whole navy, openly showed 
his approval of the act, and threw all his influence 
in favor of a continuation of ruthless tactics. But 
a question which involved a breach of international 
law, a possible break with a friendly power, could 
not be decided by even the Foreign Of^ce and Navy 
together. 

The Great General Staff claims a hand in the de- 
cision of all questions of foreign policy which even 
remotely afTect the conduct of the war. Similarly 
it was the duty of the Foreign Office to point out 

42 



WHO SANK THE LUSITANIAf 

the possible consequences under the rules of inter- 
national law; but when the question of submarine 
warfare was to be determined, the consultation was 
usually at the Great General Headquarters. At 
these meetings von Tirpitz or the navy presented 
their views and the Great General Staff sat with 
the Emperor in council, although it was reported 
in Charleville at the time of the settlement of May, 
1916, that Falkenhayn, speaking in favour of sub- 
marine war, had been rebuked by the Emperor, and 
told to stick to military affairs. 

All the evidence points to the Emperor himself 
as the responsible head who at this time ordered or 
permitted this form of murder. The orders were 
given at a time when the Emperor dominated the 
General Staff, not in one of those periods, as out- 
lined in a previous chapter when the General Staff, 
as at present, dominated the Emperor. When I 
saw the Kaiser in October, 191 5, he said that he 
would not have sunk the Lusitmiia, that no gen- 
tleman would have killed so many women and 
children. Yet he never disapproved the order. 
Other boats were sunk thereafter in the same man- 
ner and only by chance was the loss of life smaller 
when the Arabic was torpedoed. It is argued that, 
had the Emperor considered beforehand how many 
noncombatants would be killed, he would not have 
given the order to sink that particular boat. But 
what a lame excuse ! A man is responsible for the 
natural and logical results of his own acts. It may 
be too that Charles IX, when he ordered, perhaps 
reluctantly, the massacre of St. Bartholomew, did 

43 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

not know that so many would be killed, but there 
can be no Pilate-washing-of-the-hands, — Emperor 
William was responsible. He must bear the blame 
before the world. 

Blood-shed in honorable war is soon forgotten; 
but the cowardly stroke by which the Kaiser sought 
to terrorise America, by which he sent to a strug- 
gling death of agony in the sea, the peaceful men 
and women and children passengers of the Liisi- 
tania, may ever remain a cold boundary line be- 
tween Germany and America unless the German 
people utter a condemnation of the tragedy that 
rings true and repentant. 

We want to live at peace with the world when 
this war is over, to be able to grasp once more the 

i hands of those now our enemies, but how can any 
American clasp in friendship the hand of Germans 

! who approve this and the many other outrages that 

ihave turned the conscience of the world against 

I Germany? 

To Americans in Berlin, the sinking of the Lusi- 
tania came like a lightning stroke. No Bernstorff 
warnings had prepared us. I believed I would be 
recalled immediately. In making preparations to 
leave, I sent a secretary to see the head of one of 
the largest banks in Germany, a personal friend, 
to ask him, in case we should leave, to take for safe- 
keeping into his bank our silver, pictures, etc. He 
said to my secretary, "Tell Judge Gerard that I will 
take care of his valuables for him, but tell him also, 
that if the Maurctania comes out to-morrow we 
shall sink her, too," 

44 



WHO SANK THE LUSITANIAf 

That was the attitude of a majority of the busi- 
ness men of Germany. German casualties at that 
time had been great so that the mere loss of human 
life did not appal as would have been the case in 
a country unused to the daily posting of long lists 
of dead and wounded. Consequently the one feeling 
of Germany was of rejoicing, believing indeed that 
victory was near, that the ''damned Yankees" would 
be so scared that they would not dare travel on 
British ships, that the submarine war would be a 
great success, that France and England deprived of 
food, steel and supplies from America soon would be 
compelled to sue for peace, especially since the 
strategically clever, if unlawful, invasion of France 
by way of Belgium had driven the French from the 
best coal and iron districts of their country. 

I do recall that one Imperial Minister, a reason- 
able individual whose name I think it best not to 
mention, expressed in private his sorrow, not only 
for the deed itself, but for the mistaken policy which 
he saw, even then, would completely turn in the end 
the sympathies of America to the Entente Allies. 
And there were others, — among the intellectuals, 
and, especially, among the merchants of Hamburg 
and Frankfort who had travelled in the outer world 
both on pleasure and business, who realised what 
a profound effect the drowning of innocent men, 
women and children would have on our peace-lov- 
ing people. 

Mn.ny of these men said to me, "The sinking of 
the Lusitania is the greatest German defeat of all 

45 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

the war. Its consequences will be far-reaching; its 
impression, deep and lasting." 

The Teutonic Knights, from whom the ruling 
class of Prussia is descended, kept the Slavic popula- 
tion in subjection by a reign of physical terror. 
This class believes that to rule one must terrorise. 
The Kaiser himself referring to the widespread in- 
dignation caused by German outrages of the pres- 
ent war, has said : ''The German sword will com- 
mand respect." 

Terrorism — "Schrecklichkeit" — has always 
formed a part, not only of German military inclina- 
tion, but of German military policy. I often said 
to Germans of the Government, "Are you yourselves 
subject to being terrorised ? If another nation mur- 
dered or outraged your women, your children, v/ould 
it cause you to cringe in submission or would 
you fight to the last? If you would fight yourselves, 
what is there in the history of America which makes 
you think that Americans will submit to mere 
f rightfulness; in what particular do you think 
Americans are so diflferent from Germans?" But 
they shrugged their shoulders. 

I have heard that in parts of Germany school chil- 
dren were given a holiday to celebrate the sinking 
of the Lusitania. I was busy with preparations, too 
anxious about the future to devote much time to 
the study of the psychology of the Germans in other 
parts of Germany at this moment, but with the ex- 
ception of the one Cabinet Minister aforemen- 
tioned, and expressions of regret from certain mer- 
chants and intellectuals, it cannot be denied that a 

46 



;WHO SANK THE LUSlTANIAl 

great wave of exultation swept over Germany. It 
was felt that this was a master stroke, that victory 
was appreciably nearer and that no power on earth 
could withstand the brute force of the Empire. 

Mingled with this was a deep hate of all things 
American inculcated by the Berlin Government. 
And we must understand, therefore, that no trick 
and no evasion, no brutality will be untried by Ger- 
many in this war. It was against the rules of war 
to use poison gas, but first the newspapers of Ger- 
many were carefully filled with official statements 
saying the British and French had used this unfair 
means. Coincidentally with these reports the Ger- 
man army was trying by this dastardly innovation 
to break the British lines. It was not a new pro- 
cedure. Months before the Lusitania crime, the 
newspapers and people had been poisoned with of- 
ficial statements inflaming the people against Amer- 
ica, particularly for our commerce with the Entente 
in war supplies. 

It was the right, guaranteed by a treaty to which 
Germany was a signatory, of our private individuals 
to sell munitions and supplies, but as Prince von 
Buelow once remarked on December 13th, 1900, in 
the Reichstag, "I feel no embarrassment in saying 
here, publicly, that for Germany, right can never 
be a determining consideration." 

Indeed the tame professors were let loose and 
many of them rushed into government-paid print 
to prove that, according to law, the murders of 
the Lusitania were justified. A German chemist 
friend of mine told me that the chemists of Ger- 

47 




FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

many were called on, after poison gas had been 
met by British and French, to devise some new and 
deadly chemical. Flame throwers soon appeared 
together with more insidious gases. And it is only 
because of the vigilance of other nations that Ger- 
man spies have not succeeded in sowing the mi- 
crobes of pestilence in countries arrayed against 
lawless Germany. 

Remember there is nothing that Kaiserism is not 
capable of trying in the hope of victory. 



48 



CHAPTER IV 



A'> 



The kaiser and lese-majeste 

'T^HE talents and ability and agreeable person- 
ality of the German Emperor must not blind 
us to the fact that he is the centre of the system 
which has brought the world to a despair and misery 
such as it never has known since the dawn of his- 
tory. We must remember that all his utterances 
disclose the soul of the conqueror, of a man in- 
tensely anxious for earthly fame and a conspicuous 
place in the gallery of human events; envious, too, 
of the great names of the past, his ears so tuned for 
admiration and applause that they fail to hear the 
great, long drawn wail of agony that echoes around 
the world. His eyes are so blinded with the sheen 
of his own glory that they do not see the mutilated 
corpses, the crime, the pestilence, the hunger, the 
incalculable sorrow that sweeps the earth from the 
jungles of Africa to the frozen plains of the North, 
from Siberia to Saskatchewan, from Texas to 
Trieste, from Alaska to Afghanistan — everywhere 
he has brought the dark angel of mourning to mil- 
lions upon millions of desolate homes. 

Do you remember that picture of the Conquerors, 
Caesar and Alexander, Attila and Napoleon, Charle- 
magne and Cambyses, astride their horses or in 

49 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

chariots in the centre of the picture, dark, gloomy, 
menacing? On each side of them, lining a vast 
plain that fades in the distance, lie the dead — stiff, 
cold, grey, reproachful ; — yet all the victims of those 
conquerors, as well as all their battalions do not 
equal the countless number that have already 
drenched a forgiving earth with their dying blood 
in this war: — victims all of the vain-glorious ambi- 
tion of a single mortal — the German Kaiser. 

But the despot who sends his subjects to die, as 
Frederick the Great said, "in order to be talked 
about" is not indigenous to any one particular 
country. Like conditions produce like results. The 
career of Louis XIV, the *'Sun King," for instance, 
whose wars and extravagances sowed the seeds of 
the French Revolution, is epitomised in two phrases 
uttered by him: "I am the State" and "I almost 
had to wait." 

After the French Revolution, another despot, the 
first Napoleon, not only sought the conquest of the 
world, but made his ex-waiter and ex-groom mar- 
shals and his washerwomen duchesses ape the man- 
ners and customs of the old regime. Despotism 
has been characteristic of many generations but the 
world had thought itself rid of the worst offenders. 

Royalty still lives to torture and retard civilisa- 
tion. Its methods of perpetuation are unchanged 
from the middle ages. What is lese-majeste but a 
survival of feudalism, a kind of slavery to inviola- 
ble tradition — the immunity of the monarch and his 
family from that criticism and freedom of discus- 
sion which is the essence of democracy? 

50 




ur 


-IL^^ 


aMl 






^Mr 









m 






w 






T\ 


P 






— 



THE KAISER AND "LESE-MAJESTE" 

To commit lese-majeste, to speak slightingly of 
royalty in Germany, is a very serious offence. 

I have taken the following examples of decisions 
in lese-majeste cases not from the records of the 
lower courts, the decisions of which may be re- 
versed, but from the records of the Imperial Su- 
preme Court at Leipzig, the highest court in the 
land. 

For instance: The defendant, a speaker at a 
meeting consisting chiefly of sympathisers with the 
socialist cause, made the following statement in 
reference to a speech of the Kaiser: 

''Under the protection of the highest power of 
the State the gauntlet has been flung before the 
(socialist) Party, the gauntlet which means a com- 
bat for life and death. Well, then, so far as the 
insult concerns our Party, we are so far above it, 
that the mudslinging — no matter from what direc- 
tion it may come — cannot touch us." 

The defence pointed out that the defendant ''had 
considered each word carefully before he had made 
the speech, and that in doing so, wanted to avoid 
any possibility of lese-majeste." 

The Supreme Court held that although the de- 
fendant carefully selected his words and tried to 
evade prosecution, he must be adjudged guilty, be- 
cause his audience could not have misunderstood 
the insinuation. The sentence was affirmed. 

Dangerous as it is to say anything that can be 
construed as derogatory of the authority of the 
Kaiser it is equally dangerous to attack the dead 
members of the Royal House. 

51 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

The editor of the Volkswacht had published 
in his paper an article entitled "The German Char- 
acteristics of the HohenzoUerns" which the Lower 
Court interpreted to be a reply to a statement of the 
Kaiser, which had referred to a group of people con- 
sidered unworthy by him to be called "Germans." 
Without doubt the editor was alluding to the 
Kaiser's speech, made at Koenigsberg to the newly 
enlisted army recruits, in which he called the so- 
cialists "vaterlandslose Gesellen," i.e., scoundrels 
without any country. The writer, however, dis- 
cussed "the conduct of the Elector Joachim of 
Brandenburg and of his brother Albrecht, Elector 
of Mainz, before and during the election of Em- 
peror Charles V." 

The defence claimed that the defendant could not 
be held guilty of lese-majeste against the Kaiser 
since the defendant "criticised the Kaiser's ances- 
tors and not the Kaiser himself." But the Court 
held that it was the intent of the defendant to dis- 
credit the "House of the HohenzoUerns, and that 
the Kaiser by implication, being the living head of 
the Hohenzollern family, was thereby insulted." 
The Court further states that the defendant's ar- 
ticle could not be regarded as a scientific or histori- 
cal contribution since the Volkswachfs subscribers, 
consisting chiefly of workingmen, had neither any 
understanding of nor interest in dynastic intrigues 
of the sixteenth century." 

Even those Americans who have expressed them- 
selves freely about the Kaiser will, after the war is 
over, be compelled to take their "cures" in some 

52 



THE KAISER AND "LESE-MAJESTE" 

country other than Germany, for in one case it was 
held that an American citizen was rightfully con- 
victed in Baden of lese-majeste because of state- 
ments made by him in Switzerland. 

The Court held that the judgment of the Lower 
Court must be sustained, since the German Imperial 
Laws have precedence over any treaties engaged in 
by the Grand Duchy of Baden and the United 
States and "that the fact that the defendant had be- 
come a citizen of the United States does not exempt 
him from prosecution in the German Imperial 
Courts." 

In another case a newspaper editor criticised a 
speech delivered by the Kaiser before the Reichstag 
on December 6th, 1898. The defendant did not 
refer to the person of the Emperor himself, but 
simply attacked and ridiculed the propositions and 
proposals made by His Imperial Majesty. The de- 
fence pointed out that the Kaiser's speech was not 
an act of the Kaiser's own personal will, but only 
an act of government for which the Imperial Chan- 
cellor should be responsible, and that the defendant 
was not conscious of the fact that the criticism con- 
tained in his article could be an insult to the person 
of the Kaiser. 

It was held, however, by the Court that a criti- 
cism of the Kaiser's speech at the opening of the 
Reichstag is always to be regarded as a criticism of 
the Kaiser's person, and that the plea that the Im- 
perial Chancellor should be responsible for acts of 
government of this sort is not sustained. 

53 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

In other words it is, in Germany, a crime to criti- 
cise or ridicule any proposition uttered by the sacred 
lips of the Kaiser. 

If the Kaiser announces that two and two make 
five, jail awaits the subject who dares to ridicule 
that novel arithmetical proposition. 

It is because of these convictions for lese-majeste 
that the Berliners, when discussing the Emperor at 
their favourite table or *'Stammtisch" in the beer 
halls and cafes, always refer to him as "Lehmann." 



54 



CHAPTER V 

WH^N THE KAISE:r thought WE) WE^R^ BLUI^FING 

An Unpublished Diary 

KAISERDOM is an institution with which the 
American people are really unacquainted — a 
complex institution the parallel of which does not 
exist elsewhere. How it sought to play double with 
the United States is in a general way familiar to 
Americans, but I think the record of what hap- 
pened in the eighteen months preceding our break 
with Germany will illustrate exactly the currents 
and cross-currents of official opinion which led the 
United States to be scrupulously cautious in its 
course before entering the war. As I talked with 
the Emperor or the Chancellor or the Foreign Min- 
ister, I jotted down from time to time notes of their 
conversation as well as brief summaries of the in- 
formation available to me from other sources. 
Naturally I cabled to the Department of State the 
most significant news, but much of this was not 
published because our Government was proceeding 
cautiously and did not wish to be embarrassed by 
publicity of its negotiations. There is every reason 
now, however, why the facts should be known. I 
am reproducing here the diary I kept from June, 

55 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

1915, to the end of January, 1917, when unre- 
stricted submarine warfare was resumed and our 
break with Germany came. I did not have the idea 
then of ever publishing my memoranda, so my com- 
ments were written without restraint. They show, 
I am sure, what the general trend of sentiment was 
in Germany for and against submarine warfare and 
disclose, too, that while the Emperor was often in 
the background and seemingly not the most power- 
ful factor in the situation, it was his system that 
dominated Germany, his spirit that bred the lust for 
military gain at whatever cost — even the respect of 
the whole civilised world. Here are the notes as I 
penned them at the time: 

June, ipi^. Lincoln never passed through a 
crisis greater than that with which the President is 
contending. He is fighting, first, for humanity and 
some decency in war, and, second, determining 
whether a European Emperor shall or shall not dic- 
tate the political attitude of certain of our citizens. 

It is regrettable to be compelled to think that the 
German nation knows no treaty or law except the 
limit of its own desires. 

We are still awaiting the second Lusitania note 
and I fear that Germany will never consent to aban- 
don its present hideous method of submarine war. 
It is extraordinary to hear Germans of all classes 
extoll mere brute force as the only rule of inter- 
national life. It is a warning to us to create and 
increase our fleet and coast defences. 

The Germans not only do not fear war with us, 

56 



KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 

but state frankly they do not believe we dare to 
declare it, call us cowardly bluffers and say our 
notes are worse than waste paper. Breaking diplo- 
matic relations means nothing. 

Von Wiegand, the newspaper correspondent, is 
just back from Przemysl and says the Russians 
were defeated by woful lack of artillery and ammu- 
nition. Their power for offence is broken for many 
months. From the West I hear the French are 
rather discouraged. 

Germany has ample food and gets all copper, etc., 
necessary for war purposes through Sweden in ex- 
change for potash and other commodities. 

An officer of the war ministry, who comes to see 
me about prisoners, etc., told me last night that be- 
cause the French have kept several hundred Ger- 
mans as prisoners in Dahomey and other places in 
Africa, fifteen thousand French prisoners will be 
sent to work in the unhealthy swamps of Holstein. 
I have cabled the State Department often about this 
Dahomey business, transmitting the request of Ger- 
many that these prisoners be sent to Europe. Ger- 
mans cannot be beaten on reprisals. 

Two or three German-Americans have attacked 
the President, Secretary Bryan and our Govern- 
ment, some publicly. I have ordered their pass- 
ports taken away and hope to be sustained. To per- 
mit them to continue poisoning the atmosphere 
would be taken as a sign of weakness here. No one 
who abuses his own country, its government or its 
Chief is entitled to protection from that country. 

57 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

We have the visiting of British prisoners in good 
shape now, that prohibition put on our visiting and 
inspecting the camps was aboHshed in March by the 
"treaty" I arranged between England and Germany. 
It was not until March twenty-ninth that we finally 
got passes to visit camps under the ''treaty." The 
prisoners say they are badly treated when they are 
first captured, but we know only of their treatment 
in the camps. 

I do not believe all the atrocity stories; but one 
of our servants in this house came back from the 
East front recently and said the orders were to kill 
all Cossacks. Our washerwoman reports that her 
son was ordered to shoot a woman in Belgium and 
I myself have heard an officer calmly describe the 
shooting of a seven-year-old Belgian girl child, the 
excuse being that she had tried to fire at an officer. 

If the Lusitania business settles down, I hope 
the suggestion made to me by the authorities here 
and cabled to the State Department, will be carried 
into effect. This was that each American and Span- 
ish Ambassador, having charge of prisoners in bel- 
ligerent countries, should meet in Switzerland and 
discuss the whole prison situation. Each Ambassa- 
dor would be accompanied by representatives of 
whatever authorities deal with prisoners (here the 
War Ministry) in the country to which he is ac- 
credited. To prevent unseemly discussions the 
actual talking would be done by the Ambassadors 
(coached by those representatives). In addition to 
doing away with many misunderstandings and help- 
ing the prisoners, there are great possibilities in 

58 



KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 

such a meeting. We could all give each other use- 
ful "tips" on the caring for prisoners, inspections, 
camps, package delivery, mail, etc. 

There is plenty of food in Germany now and 
enough raw materials to carry on the war. Raw 
materials for peaceful industries are needed. 

A suggestion — why not start a great government 
chemical school or give protection for a certain num- 
ber of years to dyestuffs, medicine, chemical, and 
cyanide material ? All these industries are run here 
by the trustiest trusts that ever trusted, and by their 
methods keep American manufacturers from start- 
ing the business. A Congressman represents one of 
the best firms, hence his statements that it is im- 
possible to start such manufactures in America. 
Our annual tribute to these trusts is enormous. 
One dyestuff company here employs over five hun- 
dred chemists. Only big or protected business can 
compete. This war has shown that we should not 
be dependent on other countries for so many manu- 
factures. 

Gifts from America within the last week have 
been refused in Saxony. 

I fear that Germany will not give up its present 
method of submarine war. Each month new and 
more powerful submarines are added. 

Perhaps it is worth a war to have it decided that 
the United States of America is not to be run from 
Berlin. 

59 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Germans in authority feel that our "New Free- 
dom" is against their ideas and ideals. They hate 
President Wilson because he embodies peace and 
learning rather than war. 

In regard to prisoners, Mr. Harte reports pris- 
oners in Russia and Siberia better treated than was 
reported. 

I hear for the first time of growing dissatisfac- 
tion among the plain people, especially at the great 
rise in food prices. Germany is getting everything 
she wants, however, through Sweden, including 
copper, lard, etc. Von Tirpitz and his Press Bureau 
were too much for the Chancellor ; the latter is not 
a good fighter. Zimmermann, if left to himself, 
would, of course, have stopped this submarine 
murder. 

I hope the President never gives in on the em- 
bargo on arms ; if he ever gives in on that, we might 
as well hoist the German Eagle on the Capitol. 

July, 191 5. I think that the firm tone of the 
President's note (of June 9, 191 5) will make the 
Germans climb down. There seems a general dis- 
position to be pleased with the note and an expecta- 
tion that matters can be arranged. The great dan- 
ger is that the Germans may again get the idea that 
we do not dare to declare war. In such case they 
will again become difficult to handle. 

Zimmermann and von Jagow are both quite 
pleased with the tone of the note. 

60 



KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 

They both talk now of keeping Belgium, the ex- 
cuse being that the Belgians hate the Germans so 
that if Belgium again became independent it would 
be only an English outpost. Meyer Gerhard, Bern- 
storff's special envoy, has arrived and has broken 
into print over the sentiment in America. I am 
afraid he makes it too peaceful, and, therefore, the 
Germans will be encouraged to despise America. 

While the authorities here think the idea of free- 
dom of the seas good, they think the idea of freedom 
of land too vague. They want to know exactly 
what it means and say the seas should be free be- 
cause they belong to no one, but that land is the 
private property of various nations. They com- 
pare the situation to a city street, where every one is 
interested in keeping the streets free but would re- 
sent a proposal that private houses also should be 
made common meeting ground if not common prop- 
erty. Unfortunately for Germany and the world, 
the German armies are winning and this will be 
considered a complete vindication of the military 
and caste system and everything which now exists. 
As Cleveland said, we are confronted by a condi- 
tion, not a theory. Germany, unless beaten, will 
never directly or indirectly agree to any freedom of 
land or disarmament proposal. 

The Emperor probably will see me soon. He has 
been rabid on the export of arms from the United 
States to the Allies, but like all Germans, when they 
see we cannot be scared into a change of policy, he 
is making a nice recovery. 

6i 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Was told by a friend at the Foreign Office that 
the German note would contain a proposition that 
regular passenger ships should not be torpedoed 
without notice, but must carry no cargo other than 
passengers' baggage. Have heard Marine Depart- 
ment rather opposes this, but may favor proposi- 
tion as to ships inspected and certified to carry no 
arms or ammunition. No note until after July 
fourth, they say at Foreign Office, on tip from 
Washington. (Note — German note was delivered 
to me July 8, 1915.) 

Chancellor and von Jagow have been in Vienna, 
probably over Balkan question. The situation there 
hinges on Bulgaria. Germany wants a direct strip 
of territory for itself or Austria to Constantinople. 
Thirteen million pounds in gold sent recently by 
Germany to Turkey to keep the boys in line. Prin- 
cipal Socialist paper, the Vorzvaerts, has been sup- 
pressed because it spoke of peace; reason given is 
that this kind of talk would encourage enemies of 
Germany. 

The Germans are becoming more strict, even 
women now entering Germany must strip to the 
skin and take down their back hair. The wife of 
Hearst's correspondent here had to submit to this 
the other day. 

At first, newspaper correspondents had to prom- 
ise they would not go to enemy territory, next that 
they would not go to neutral territory (after one 

62 



KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 

correspondent went to Denmark and sent out dis- 
patches about the movement against annexing Bel- 
gium). Now the correspondents must promise not 
to go home. This is to keep secret the internal 
conditions. The women stormed a butter shop here 
the other day and our Consul reports, in Chemnitz, 
quite a serious food riot. The military were called 
out and the fire department turned hose on the 
crowd. 

In Austria, I hear men up to fifty-five are being 
called to the colours and even the infirm taken for 
the army. There are said to be seven German and 
five Austrian army corps invading Servia. The 
losses of the invaders are reported to be heavy. To 
date, the German dead in this war number about 
seven hundred thousand. People who offered pri- 
vate hospitals at the beginning of the war and who 
were told these were not needed, have been re- 
quested to open them. I was told the remaining 
civil population of Vouziers, France (in German 
hands), had been removed to make room for Ger- 
man wounded. 

The note of July 21, 191 5, in which the President 
said he would regard the sinking of ships without 
"■■arning as "deliberately unfriendly," is received 
with hostility by press and Government. Of course, 
the party of frightfulness has conquered those of 
milder views, owing largely to the aggressive news- 
paper campaign conducted by von Tirpitz, Revent- 
low and Company. The Germans generally are, at 

63 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

present, in rather a waiting attitude, perhaps anx- 
ious to see what our attitude toward England will 
be — but this will not affect their submarine policy. 
The Foreign Office now claims, I hear, that I am 
hostile to Germany, but that claim was to be ex- 
pected. Of course, I had no more to do with the 
American note than they did, but it is impossible to 
convince them of that, so I shall not try. 

Germany has the Balkan situation well in hand. 
Roumania can do nothing in the face of recent Rus- 
sian defeats and has just consented to allow grain 
to be exported to Austria and Germany, but has, I 
think, not yet consented to allow the passage of am- 
munition to Turkey. The pressure, however, is 
great. If not successful, perhaps German troops 
will invade Servia so as to get a passage through 
to Turkey. 

A minister from one of the Balkan States told 
me the situation of Roumania, Greece and Bulgaria 
was about the same, each state can last in war only 
about three months, so all are trying to gauge three 
months before the end and then come in on the 
winning side. 

The Bulgarian Minister of the Public Debt got 
in here by mistake the other day, insisting he had 
an appointment; he had an appointment with the 
Treasurer, Helfferich, whose office is nearby. This 
shows, perhaps, that Bulgaria is getting money 
here. 

Also the Germans are sending back to Russia, 
Russians of revolutionary tendencies, who were 

64 



KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 

prisoners here, with money and passports in order 
that they may stir up trouble at home. 

The Germans are making- a great effort to take 
Warsaw, even old Landsturm men are in the fight- 
ing line ; I think they will get it, and then they hope 
to turn two million men and strike a great blow in 
France — thus they expect to end the war by 
October. 

I notice now a slight reaction from annexation 
toward giving up all or part of Belgium ; but I must 
say I hear very little of popular dissatisfaction with 
the war. Everything seems to be going smoothly; 
but they are scraping the bottom of the box on 
getting men for the army. 

It is not pleasant to be hated by so many millions. 
The Germans naturally make me the object of their 
concentrated hate. I received an anonymous letter 
in which the kindly writer rejoices that so many 
Americans were drowned in the Chicago disaster. 
This shows the state of mind. 

The Emperor is at the front, "Somewhere in 
Galicia." They keep him very much in the back- 
ground, I think, with the idea of disabusing the 
popular mind of the idea that this is "his war." 
After all, accidents may happen, and even after a 
victorious war there may be a day of reckoning. 
The Chancellor went to the front yesterday, prob- 
ably to see the Emperor about the American ques- 
tion. 

6s 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

August, ipi^. I had a conversation last week of 
one hour and a half with the Chancellor. He sent 
for me because I had written him to take no more 
trouble about my seeing the Emperor. He ex- 
plained, of course, first that he did not know I 
wanted to see the Emperor, and second that it was 
impossible to see the Emperor. They keep the Em- 
peror well surrounded. Now I do not want to see 
him. He is hot against Americans and the matters 
I wanted to talk of are all settled — one way. I 
cabled an interesting report on the Emperor's con- 
versation re America. 

The Chancellor is still wrong in his head; says 
it was necessary to invade Belgium, break all inter- 
national laws, etc. I think, however, that he was 
personally against the fierce Dernburg propaganda 
in America. I judge that von Tirpitz, through his 
press bureau, has egged on the people so that this 
submarine war will continue. An official confessed 
to me that they had tried to get England to inter- 
fere, together with them, in Mexico, and Germans 
"Gott strafe" the Monroe Doctrine in their daily 
prayers of hate. 

Warsaw, as I predicted officially, long ago, will 
soon fall. 

No great news — we are simply waiting for the 
inevitable submarine ''accident." 

Unless there is a change of sentiment in the Gov- 
ernment I think the submarine commanders will be 
careful. 

66 



KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 

The Chancellor talked rather freely but again 
said it was impossible to leave Belgium to become 
an outpost of the English, but possibly with Ger- 
mans in possession of the forts, the railways and 
with commercial rights in Antwerp it might be 
arranged. 

There is a faction here led by deputy Basser- 
mann, Stresemann, Fahrmann, etc., who are at- 
tacking the Chancellor. They represent great in- 
dustrials who want to annex Belgium, Northern 
France, Poland and anything else that can be had, 
for their own ultimate advantage. A man named 
Hirsch is hired by the Krupp firm to "accelerate" 
this work. Krupps also pay the expenses of the 
''Oversea Service" which is feeding news to 
America. 

A paper against annexation of Belgium has been 
signed, I am told, by Dernburg, Prince Hatzfeld 
and others, and will be presented to the Chancellor 
to-day. I believe many are to sign it; but of those 
who have signed are Hatzfeld, who is one of the 
three big Dukes of Prussia; Prince Henkel- 
Donnersmarck, who is the second richest subject in 
Germany — (85 years old, he was in 1870 first Gov- 
ernor of Lorraine) — von Harrach, who is a man 
of great ability, highly respected, as is also Profes- 
sor Delbriick. 

The Reichstag meets in a few days. The Social- 
ists are holding daily caucuses, but have not yet 
decided on any party action. Undoubtedly they will 
vote for the new ten milliard loan, with Liebknecht 

67 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

and a few others dissenting. Probably a split will 
also develop in the National Liberal Party ; Basser- 
man and others have been attacking the Chancellor, 
but I think other members will dissent. It is quite 
probable that there will be a discussion about the 
object of the war, and permission will be asked for 
public discussion, the Socialists perhaps claiming 
that they have consented to a defensive war only, 
and that now that the war is on enemy territory 
peace should be at least discussed. There may also 
be talk about the annexation of Belgium and food 
prices. The Socialists are greatly incensed at those 
who are holding food for high prices. 

Personally, I think that Germany now wants 
peace but does not want to say so openly. 

A relative of a Field Marshal told me to-day that 
Germany's killed to date were 600,000 and 200,000 
crippled for life. 

I must say that the plain people still seem per- 
fectly tame and ready to continue the war. How- 
ever, there may also be a protest in the Reichstag 
about the treatment by non-commissioned officers of 
Landsturm men who have never served but who 
now, in the process of scraping the box, are called 
to the colors. 

The Germans hope by a great movement to cap- 
ture a great part of the Russian army; probably 
they will fail. They also entertain hopes that in 
such case Sweden will enter Finland and two Bal- 
kan States declare for them. Balkan Ministers 
here tell me the defeat of Russia makes it impossible 

68 



KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 

for Roumania to enter, but they fear an invasion by 
the Germans. All diplomatic work is now centred 
in the Balkans. 

Successes in Russia have made the people here 
very cocky. Hence, probably, the torpedoing- of the 
Arabic. Also great hope of Bulgaria coming in 
with Germany; there is no more dissatisfaction 
heard over the war. I have as yet received nothing 
from Washington regarding the Arabic. 

I have just spent four half days at Ruhleben, 
where civilian Britishers are interned, so as to give 
every prisoner a chance to speak to me personally. 

There is much talk of creating an independent 
Poland. The Reichstag session has developed no 
opposition, 

A fac-simile of that infernal advertisement * of 
the Cleveland Automatic Tool Company in the 
American Machinist was laid on the desk of every 
member of the Reichstag; and the papers are full 
of accounts of great deliveries of war munitions 
by America, possibly preparing people for a break. 
If Bulgaria comes in, Germany will undoubtedly 
take a strip in Servia and keep a road to Con- 
stantinople and the East. The new Turkish 
Ambassador has just arrived. The old one was 
not friendly to Enver Bey and so was bounced; 

* This was an advertisement in an American newspaper about 
machines for the manufacture of particularly deadly shells and 
was much used in Germany to show how America was helping the 
Entente. 

69 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

he remains here, however, as he fears if he went to 
Turkey he would get some ''special" coffee. The 
hate for Americans grows daily. 

All rumours are that in the recent council at Po- 
sen the Chancellor, advocating concessions in sub- 
marine war, won out over von Tirpitz. But von 
Tirpitz will die hard, and there will be trouble yet, 
as the Navy will be very angry if the present meth- 
ods are abandoned. Members of the Reichstag 
have telegraphed backing up the Chancellor ; but it 
is hard for any civilian idea to prevail against 
Army or Navy. 

Probably the Admiralty will say that the sub- 
marine which torpedoed the Arabic was lost, in or- 
der to avoid disgracing an officer. 

If the Arabic question is not complicated with 
the Lusitania a solution will be easier. The com- 
mon people have been aroused by von Tirpitz's press 
bureau and it will be simpler for the Chancellor to 
"back track," taking as an example a case like the 
Arabic when the ship was going West and carried 
no ammunition. 

The defeat of the Russians is undoubtedly crush- 
ing. Is England waking up too late? There will 
be a big offensive soon against the West lines. 

I have heard nothing up to to-day from the State 
Department re the Arabic, except one cable ask- 
ing me to request a report. 

A correspondent has just been in and says that 

70 



KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 

the General Staff people threaten to expel him be- 
cause he went to Copenhagen and sent out news 
about the petition to the Chancellor not to annex 
Belgium. The Foreign Office had no objection; 
this shows how the line is forming between the 
Chancellor and the Military. All correspondents 
to-day say the Germans are trying to dragoon them 
into sending only news which the General Staff 
wants sent, and the Military have added their cen- 
sorship to that of the Foreign Office. 

An official told me that Bernstorff, while not ex- 
actly exceeding his instructions in his ^'Arabic 
Note" (of Sept. i, 1915), had put the matter in a 
manner they did not approve. 

Orders have now, apparently, been given to all 
German officials to say that the war will last a long 
time — at least a year and a half. 

It is expected that Persia will come in under Ger- 
man leadership and attack India. 

Our Military Attache, Colonel Kuhn, was finally 
presented to the Kaiser and had a pleasant chat with 
him. Colonel Kuhn says all fighting on the West 
is with artillery and hand grenades. Rifles are 
thrown aside. 

Germans have spies "piking off" our Embassies 
in Paris, London and Petrograd. 

Great airship attacks on London may be expected. 
In one of the recent attacks nine thousand eight 
hundred bombs (fire and explosive) were dropped. 
I get this from good authority. 

71 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Foreign Office quite elated over their Balkan 
triumph. Personally, I think it was one of the most 
effective bits of German "diplomacy" in the history 
of the Empire. 



n 



CHAPTER VI 

THE) INSIDE) OF GE)RMAN DIPLOMACY 

The Di(wy Continued 

/^CTOBBR, 191 5. There is a tendency here to 
^^ say Bernstorff went too far. But this is all 
for the public, von Jagow told a correspondent so to- 
day; but, of course, he did not know about the note 
of Austria to Servia either! The Marine people 
are positively raging. The paper which Reventlow 
writes for, the Tages Zeitung, was suppressed yes- 
terday; I hear on account of an article on this 
Arabic settlement, but I am not yet sure. 

There is talk now of marching to Egypt. 

More and more men are being called to colours. 
But Germany seems to be able to take care of all 
fronts. The Emperor is now in the West. The 
Foreign Office leads the rejoicing over the Entente's 
invasion of Greece and the violation of its neutral- 
ity and says that talk about Belgium is now shown 
to be cant. 

Weather is rotten and we shall have a melan- 
choly winter. Feel the war more — deaths and 
prices. Six hundred and eighty thousand killed to 
October first, and many crippled. Food way up, 
but they cannot starve Germany out. 

73 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Suppression of the Tages Zeitung means that the 
Chancellor has at last exhibited some backbone and 
will fight von Tirpitz. The answer of Germany 
depends on the outcome of this fight. It is possible 
that von Falkenhayn and the army party may sus- 
tain the Chancellor as against von Tirpitz. It is 
quite likely that a sort of safe conduct will be of- 
fered in the note for ships especially engaged in 
passenger trade. Much stress will be laid on Eng- 
lish orders to merchant ships to ram submarines. 

The Kaiser is at Pless, a castle of Prince of Pless, 
in Silesia, near Breslau, where he moved after the 
attempt of French fliers to bombard him at Charle- 
ville on the West Front. The Germans probably 
will have Lemberg in a few days. This may prevent 
Roumania coming in. There is talk here of an 
attempted revolution in Moscow. There is said to 
be jealousy of Hindenburg and on account of this, 
Mackensen was put forward to be the hero of the 
Galician Campaign. Captain Enochs, one of our 
observers in Austria, was forced out of Austria 
because of German pressure and our other military 
observers will follow soon. 

Many commercial magnates have arrived in town 
to argue with the government against war with 
America; but some are in favor of the continuance 
of bitter submarine war, notably one who sees his 
Bagdad railway menaced by possible English suc- 
cess in the Dardanelles. 

November, 1915. A man who saw Tisza tells 
me the Serbs inquired if they could get peace and 

74 



THE INSIDE OF GERMAN DIPLOMACY 

retain their territories. They were answered, "No." 
It is said that Italy has also felt out for peace, 
but was answered that she must deal with Austria 
alone — and Austria says that she will not include 
Italy in any general peace but will wallop her alone 
after general peace is made. 

I am working hard to get British prisoners prop- 
erly clothed. Winter is already here. Efforts to 
starve Germany will not succeed. We shall be on 
meat and butter cards, but that is only a precaution. 
The people still are well in hand. Constant rumours 
of peace keep them hopeful. Men over forty-five 
not yet called. They seem to have plenty of troops. 
The military are careless of the public opinion of 
neutrals ; they say they are winning and do not need 
good opinion. I am really afraid of war against us 
after this war — if Germany wins. We had snow, 
ice, and cold weather at the end of October. 

There have been uneasy movements among the 
people in Leipzig, a great industrial centre, and the 
V olkzeitung , a Socialist paper there, has been put 
under permanent preventive censorship. 

All these movements start with the question of 
the price of food. 

The Prussian Junkers, however, are really bene- 
fited by the war. They get, even with a high "stop 
price," three times as much as formerly for their 
agricultural products and pay only a small sum, 
sixty pfennig daily, for the prisoners of war who 
now work their fields. They may, in addition, have 
to pay the keep of the prisoners, but that is very 

75 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

small. Camp commanders are allowed sixty-six 
pfennig per head per diem. 

There is much talk of peace. The shares of the 
Hamburg- American Line and the shares of the 
Hamburg-South American Line have risen enor- 
mously in price from fifty-six to one hundred and 
forty in one case. This may be caused by an ad- 
vantageous sale of some shares of the Holland- 
American Line or by promise of a subsidy, or by 
hopes of peace. 

There is no question but that every man under 
forty-five that can drag a rifle has been drafted 
for the army, with the possible exception of men 
working in railways, munitions, etc. 

Yesterday I noticed many women working on the 
roadbed of the railway. 

The new Peruvian Minister is named von der 
Heyde ; his father was a German. 

The Greek Minister still thinks Greece will stay 
out of the war. His father is one of the cabinet. 

The Germans are very glad to get rid of Brand 
Whitlock. For some time they have been looking 
for an excuse to expel him. 

The dyestuff and other chemical manufacturers 
are getting quite scared about possible American 
competition. I hope the Democrats will give pro- 
tection to these new industries and will also enact 
some "anti-dumping" legislation. 

76 



THE INSIDE OF GERMAN DIPLOMACY 

The German cities are adding to the general 
weight of debt by incurring large debts for war 
purposes, such as relief of soldiers' families, etc. 

The former Turkish Ambassador, who is against 
the Young Turks, is living here. He is afraid to 
go back and also the Germans are keeping him in 
stock in case the Young Turks go out of power, 
and possibly to stir up trouble in Egypt, as his wife 
is a daughter of one of the Khedives. 

There are lots of suspicious looking Spaniards 
about, possibly cooking up an attack on Gibraltar. 

Any German peace talk includes payment of a 
large subsidy by England, Russia, and France; 
Italy to be left to Austria to finish. 

The export of gold has now been formally for- 
bidden. 

There is no doubt whatever that the population 
in the conquered portion of Poland has been for a 
long time in need of food. 

Our Military Attache, Colonel Kuhn, just back 
from Servia, says the Germans have, literally, 
stacks of ammunition and had begun preparing last 
spring for the present attack, even little mountain 
wagons and new harness being all ready. Only 
about six German corps are there. 

The hate against Americans here is deep-seated 
and bitter. Hans Winter feldt, a prominent German 
banker, with American citizenship, just came in to 
tell me that at the annual meeting to-day of the 
great Allegemeine Electricitats Gesellschaft a fight 

77 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

was started against him because of his American 
citizenship, and he was not, therefore, re-elected a 
director. He thinks of resigning from all banks, 
etc., and returning to America. 

December, 1915. Red Cross Doctor Schmidt 
just in from Servia says Belgrade was completely 
plundered. 

Having lots of difficulty getting the Germans to 
give the English prisoners clothes. 

Hate of Americans worse than ever. 

Germans are not resentful when I fight to get 
things for English prisoners; they only say they 
hope our Ambassadors are doing the same for Ger- 
mans. 

Much disappointment at Dr. Snoddy's mission 
not yet being permitted to work in Russia. 

Last Tuesday night I ran into quite a peace dem- 
onstration, called by placards the night of the Peace 
Interpretation in the Reichstag. Soon disbanded 
by the poHce with many arrests. One man told me 
that they were tired of a silly war and days without 
meat. There has been nothing in the papers about 
these demonstrations; of course, each arrest makes 
an anarchist for life. 

It is hard to get butter. The women storm the 
butter shops and market. 

In a new building (where the Consulate is) they 
are taking off the copper roof. 

Of a sudden — peace talk. The Chancellor is 
waiting to address the Reichstag, waiting to get 
the sentiment of the members who are all in Berlin, 

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en 






THE INSIDE OF GERMAN DIPLOMACY 

and then swim with it. Many members, who are 
not Socialists, favour peace, and the Chancellor will 
be forced to make some sort of a declaration on 
why they are fighting and for what. 

A Reichstag member told me the Reichstag will 
say and do things it did not dream of doing six 
months ago. There are many quiet meetings of 
members going on. 

Hindenburg is out with an interview saying it is 
not yet time for peace. This is a Government meas- 
ure to stamp out peace talk among the Reichstag 
members. 

Am having a hard fight to get the British pris- 
oners properly clothed for the winter. Of course, 
the Germans have rather a difficult time with so 
many prisoners, but that is no excuse if men die 
of cold. The weather is and has been bitterly cold. 

Saw von Jagow lately, but only on business and 
commercial questions. Zimmermann lunched here 
to-day. Roeder, of the World, is here making a 
study of German industrial conditions. I intro- 
duced him to Gutmann, of the Dresdner Bank; 
Rathenau, head of the Allegemeine Electricitats 
Gesellschaft; Dr. Solf, Colonial Minister, and oth- 
ers. I think his report will be very sound and worth 
reading. 

There is no question but that there is a deep- 
seated hatred of America here, which must be 
reckoned with sooner or later. 

I don't expect things to be easy, but I wish to 
goodness all Americans would stay at home. 

79 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Greek Minister still thinks Greece will remain 
neutral. 

Probably greatest need of Germany is lubricating 
oil for machines, etc. Germans claim to have a 
copper mine in Servia. I never heard of one there. 

Dr. Ohnesorg, U. S. N., and Osborne back from 
inspecting camps. They report bad conditions ; they 
were not allowed (contrary to our "treaty") to talk 
out of hearing of camp officers to the prisoners in 
Lemburg Camp. These prisoners are 2,000 Irish, 
and the reason, of course, for the refusal of the 
usual permission is that the Germans, through the 
notorious Sir Roger Casement, have been trying to 
seduce the Irish, and do not want the soldier pris- 
oners to tell us about it. I have learned, through 
other sources, that the Germans seduced about 30 
Irish. I told von Jagow what I had learned and 
asked what the Germans had done with these vic- 
tims — whether they were in the German army or 
not. He said, "No, most of them had been sent to 
Ireland to raise hell there." I suppose they were 
landed from submarines. 

I think the German press has received orders to 
step softly on the von Papen-Boy-ed recall. The 
greatest danger now lies in Austria, and over the 
Ancona note. There is a large body of manufactur- 
ers, ship-owners, etc., here who at the last moment 
declare themselves against war with the U. S. A. and 
use their influence to that end, but in Austria no 
such interests exist to help toward peace. However, 
pressure from Germany may be brought to bear. 

80 



THE INSIDE OF GERMAN DIPLOMACY 

I think Germany will not send successors to von 
Papen and Boy-ed even with safe conduct ; whether 
they will ask the recall of our attaches is another 
question not yet decided. 

An official tells me confidentially that Rintelen 
was sent to America to buy up the product of the 
Dupont Powder Company, and that if he did any- 
thing else he exceeded his instructions. 

Shop people in Berlin with whom I have talked 
are getting sick of the war. 

I hear rumours that Germany is trying, through 
its Minister in China, to come to an understanding 
with Japan and Russia. 

The banks are sending circulars to all safe- 
deposit box holders, trying to get them to give up 
their gold. 

An American clergyman has just told me the 
German church body has refused to receive an 
American Church deputation and has written a very 
bitter letter. 

An official has told me that no new Military At- 
tache will be sent to America. The naval people 
have not yet decided. 

I am very glad to hear Colonel House is coming 
over. There are many things I want to tell the 
President but which I do not dare to commit to 
paper. 

A newspaperman supposed to be of the New York 

had an interview with Zimmermann the 

other day, and Zimmermann sent some messages 
by him to the President. I do not know what the 

8i 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

messages are. We all suffer much from amateur 
diplomats. 

Anthony Czarnecki, a very intelligent Chicagoan, 
an American of Polish descent, is here represent- 
ing Victor Lawson and the Chicago Daily A^ezvs. 
He informs me that the Spy Nest is contemplating 
an attack on the Administration because of the tak- 
ing away of Archibald's and others' passports. 

My impression is that the Austrians, owing to 
pressure from here, will eventually give in on the 
Ancona business. I think the present a good time 
to force the settlement of the Lusitania question. 

Note. I do not suppose that any Ambassador ever suffered as 
much from amateur "super Ambassadors" as I did. 

The German Foreign Office, trjing to be modern and up-to-date 
at times, paid more attention to the tales of pro-German American 
correspondents than they did to the utterances of President Wilson. 

Of course, the Germans succeeded in taking many of those corre- 
spondents in their camp. In the Hotel in Berlin an agent 

of the German Government who possessed American citizenship was 
always ready to arrange trips to the front or to make an advance 
of money to an American correspondent who would promise to be 
"good." 

Some received cash, some were paid in interviews with prominent 
officials, some received both, before all was continually dangled the 
blue ribbon — the hope of an interview with the Kaiser — and some, 
thank God. were real Americans and refused all the offered tempta- 
tions — news or money. 

An American gentleman who lived for a time at this hotel has 
given me a written statement which throws a light on the activities 
of certain of these gentry and which I may some day use. In this he 
states how one of these gentlemen claimed that the Imperial Chan- 
cellor alwaj-s sent for him to consult him on his attitude towards 
America and that he had advised him to make a bold front and 
bluff. Hence, perhaps the note of January- thirty-first which sud- 
denly announced the ruthless submarine war. 

I have proof that one of this traitorous gang went about Berlin 
personating me. What scheme he was cooking up I do not know. 

Zimmermann was particularly weak in being advised by one of 
these shady individuals. 

82 



THE INSIDE OF GERMAN DIPLOMACY 

I think the German Government will allow Ford or 
any of his angels to come here, but the Peace Ark 
seems pretty well wrecked. 

Provincial and small newspapers are much more 
bitter against America than the larger ones. 

Von Jagow told me the other day that he thought 
the feeling here against America was so bitter that, 
eventually, war would be inevitable. 

Received following anonymous letter: 

"1 am enabled to-day to give your Excellency news of 
the utmost importance, Germany is at the end of its 
forces and the Imperial Government is inclined to make 
peace cost what may ! One of the most prominent and in- 
fluential members of the Reichstag has assured me, that 
the general conviction of the parliament is dominated by 
the absolute necessity, to pull back and to strive for 
peace as soon as possible. The financial aspect given by 
Dr. Helfferich is disastrous, the military situation, taken 
in the whole, unsatisfactory and the confidential infor- 
mation, given by Herr von Jagow in the committee with 
regard to the Egj^ptian expedition, discouraging if not 
hopeless. The Government and particularly Herr von 
Bethmann wish for peace, but believe themselves re- 
strained by public opinion and by the fear of the Pan- 
Germanists. It's now the psychological moment for in- 
tervention by the United States and there can be no doubt, 
that it should and will be exercised in favour of humanity, 
culture and freedom, in favour of the prevalence of the 
Anglo-Saxon race and the future development of the 
new world against Prussian barbarity, Imperial despot- 
ism and Teutonic slavery ! 

22. XII. 191 5. Old Gentleman." 

83 



CHAPTER VII 

'D]BRMANy's plan to attack AMERICA 

The Diary Continued 

/ANUARY, ipi6. Many of the Intelligent rich 
are expressing the fear that after this war the 
Socialist high price system, governmental seizure of 
food, control of raw materials, etc., will be contin- 
ued and also that the owners of large landed estates 
will be compelled to subdivide them. • 

We are getting vague and conflicting reports in 
the newspapers here about the sinking of the 
Persia. There seems to be no end to this business. 
Perhaps it is best to have the inevitable come now. 
The hate of America has grown to such an extent 
under careful Government stimulus that I am quite 
sure we will be the first attacked after the war. 
Therefore, if it is to come, it had better come now 
when we would start with a certain fleet in com- 
mand of the seas, making it impossible for agita- 
tors, dynamiters, and spies to be sent to Mexico 
and South America and into the U. S. A. through 
Canada and Mexico. From the highest to the low- 
est I get intimations that at the first chance Amer- 
ica will be attacked. 

84 



GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 

There is still a spirit of confidence in ultimate 
success, amply justified, it would seem, by the mili- 
tary situation. 

A lot of dyestuffs mysteriously left Germany re- 
cently in spite of the embargo, and got to Holland, 
billed to America, where it remains, awaiting a per- 
mit from the British. Perhaps the Germans are 
getting worried about the possible building-up of 
the industry at home. The profits of the German 
dyestuff "trust" are certainly great enough to tempt 
the trust to do anything to keep the monopoly. 
Hardly a company pays less than 24 per cent, divi- 
dends. 

The Kaiser is still laid up with a boil on his neck. 

I am waiting the arrival of Colonel House, who, 
I suppose, will be here in ten days or so. 

S. S. McClure of the good ship Nutty (Pro- 
prietor Ford), Hermann Bernstein and Inez Mil- 
holland Boissevain, likewise of the crew, have 
been here. Their stories are most amusing. Ap- 
parently, now, the nuttiest have voted to remain a 
permanent committee at The Hague; salary (five 
thousand suggested) to each to be paid by Ford — 
with washing and expenses. 

The Reichstag, sitting in ''Budget Commission," 
is getting quite worked up over the censorship and 
the Socialists are demanding the freedom of the 
press. 

Yesterday one member said he thought it would 

85 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

do the U. S. A. g-ood if they knew what the Germans 
really thought of Americans. 

The spy system here is very complete and even 
the President and Cabinet at home in America are 
surrounded. Heydebrand, leader of the Conserva- 
tive Party, called the uncrowned King of Prussia, 
said yesterday in the Prussian Chamber that 
"America was among the worst enemies of Ger- 
many." I am convinced that Germany, as now ad- 
vised, either will attack America or land in South 
America, if successful in this war. Falkenhayn, 
Chief of the General Staff, said, referring to Amer- 
ica, *lt is hard to stop a victorious army." 

I have just returned from three days in Munich. 
I visited two prison camps and the American Red 
Cross Hospital in Munich and conferred with Arch- 
deacon Nies (of the American Episcopal Church), 
who is permitted to visit Bavarian prison camps, 
talk to prisoners, and hold services in English. 
These Bavarian camps are under Bavarian, not 
Prussian, rule. 

Munich seems lively and contented. I saw great 
quantities of soldiers there and at Ingolstadt. 

I expect Colonel House about the 26th, and shall 
be very glad to see him. 

Morgenthau was here for a day. I took him to 
see von Jagow, where we talked for an hour. Later, 
through some Germans, he met Zimmermann, who 
asked him if he did not think the German- Ameri- 

86 



GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 

cans in America would rise in rebellion if trouble 
came between Germany and America. 

Von Jagow was very explicit in saying that Ger- 
many had made no agreement with us about sub- 
marine commanders. He said distinctly that Ger- 
many reserved the right to change these orders at 
any time. On the general question, he again said 
that the submarine was a new weapon and that the 
rules of international law must be changed, ap- 
parently claiming the right for Germany to change 
these rules at will and without the consent of any 
other power involved. 

Morgenthau sailed Sunday, the sixth, from Co- 
penhagen, The newspapers to-day and last night 
print articles to the effect that the negotiations are 
taking a more favourable course. 

February, igi6. I dined last night at von Ja- 
gow's. He said I would get a note to-day which 
would accept all Bernstorff's propositions except, 
as he put it, one word, viz. : Germany will acknowl- 
edge liability for the loss of American lives by the 
sinking of the Lusitania, but will not acknowledge 
that the act of sinking was illegal. He said that 
international law had to be changed, that the sub- 
marine was a new weapon, and that, anyway, if a 
break came with America, that they had a lot of 
new submarines here and would make an effective 
submarine blockade of England. To-day a cipher 
from the German Foreign Office came in to be for- 
warded to the State Department for Bernstorff, so 
I suppose this is what he referred to. Probably 
the Germans are in earnest on this proposition. It 

87 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

is now squarely up to the American people to decide. 
Of course, I am very much disturbed at the turn 
of affairs, but I am doing nothing except repeating 
to Lansing what is said to me, and trying to con- 
vince the Germans that we are in earnest. 

I was very glad to see Colonel House in Berlin, 
Tor many reasons, and, especially, that the Presi- 
dent may get his view of the situation here. He 
had long talks with the Chancellor, von Jagow, and 
Zimmermann, and also met Dr. Solf, the Colonial 
Minister ; von Gwinner, head of the Deutsche Bank; 
Gutmann, of the Dresdner Bank; and Dr. Rathe- 
nau, head of the Allegemeine Electricitats Gesell- 
schaft and many corporations, who is now engaged 
with the General Staff in providing raw materials 
for Germany. 

I think the Germans are getting short of copper 
and nickel, especially the latter. Copper lightning 
rods of churches have been taken and an effort was 
made to take the brass reading desk in the Ameri- 
can Church and the fittings in the Japanese Em- 
bassy. 

I think from underground rumours that the Ger- 
mans and the propagandists will endeavour to em- 
broil us with Japan. 

Baroness von Schroeder, a von Tirpitz spy, stated 
the other day that Japan would send a note to the 
United States of America making demands on the 
U. S. in regard to the Japanese immigration ques- 
tion. 

There was a well-defined report that Germany 

88 



GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 

would issue a manifesto stating that enemy mer- 
chant ships would be fired on without notice and 
this because of orders alleged to have been found 
on British ships ordering merchant ships to fire on 
submarines at sight. 

The Chancellor told me he was ready for peace 
but that all his emissaries had met with a cold re- 
ception in the Allied countries of France, England 
and Russia. 

A fight against the Chancellor has been started 
in the home of the Junkers — the Prussian Chamber. 
The powerful liberal papers are jumping hard on 
the disturbers and the Chancellor hit back quite 
hard. These Junkers are demanding unlimited sub- 
marine war and are stirred up by von Tirpitz. It 
is one of their last kicks as soon a real suffrage 
will have to be introduced in Prussia. The Chan- 
cellor foreshadowed this in opening this Prussian 
Chamber ; hence the tears ! 

The visit of Colonel House here was undoubtedly, 
from this end, a success ; and I am glad that he can 
give the President a fresh and impartial view. 

March first we go on a milk and butter card re- 
gime. I have put the Polish question (food) up to 
Zimmermann, and asked informally whether proper 
guarantees against the direct or indirect taking of 
food and money from Poland will be stopped, if re- 
lief is sent ; no answer yet. 

In spite of what I was told by certain exalted 
personages last autumn, I think that if the war 

89 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

continues much longer the President will be wel- 
comed as a mediator. In fact, there are a number 
of cartoons and articles appearing in the news- 
papers which, in tone, are against the President 
because he does not insist on peace. 

I think that we may soon look for a very strong 
German attack on the West Front, an endeavour to 
break through before the time when the French 
and English are contemplating their offensive, 
which is probably some time in March. 

At or about the same time there will probably 
be great Zeppelin attacks on London and on other 
English centres. It is reported that in their next 
offensive the Germans will use a more deadly form 
of poison gas. 

I had the grippe, went to Partenkirchen for a 
few days, but the first night in country air since 
July, 19 14, was too much for me and filled me with 
such energy that I tried skiing, fell down and broke 
my collar-bone, came to Berlin and can sit at my 
desk, but am very uncomfortable. 

I think Germany was about to offer to sink no 
merchant ships without notice and putting crews, 
etc., in safety, if England would disarm merchant 
ships, but now, since the President's letter to Stone, 
both the Chancellor and von Jagow say they are 
convinced that America has a secret understanding 
with England and that nothing can be arranged. 

Captain Persius points out in to-day's Tageblatt 
that it is not submarines alone that are now, with- 

90 



GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 

out notice, going to sink armed merchant ships, but 
cruisers, etc., will take a hand. 

It is reported that the Kaiser went to Wilhelms- 
hafen to warn submarine commanders to be care- 
ful and that submarines will hunt in pairs, one 
standing ready to torpedo while the other warns. 
The German losses at Verdun are small as artillery 
fire annihilated enemy first. I think an attack will 
be made now in another part of the front. 

Germany has forbidden the import of many ar- 
ticles of luxury; this is to keep exchange more 
normal and keep gold in the country. This prob- 
ably will continue after the war. 

Some newspaper men just in from Verdun report 
the Germans saving men — losses small — going at it 
with artillery, probably over i,ooo guns, and making 
a slow and almost irresistible push. Some military 
attaches think there may be a strong attack some- 
where else on the front. 

This Verdun attack was undoubtedly made to 
keep Roumania out. 

I think the food question here is getting very 
serious, but before they are starved out they will 
starve six million Belgians, eleven million Russians 
and Poles and two million prisoners ; so that, after 
all, this starvation business is not practical. 

There was a Grand Council of War last week at 
Charleville to determine whether von Tirpitz's prop- 
osition, to start an imlimited submarine blockade of 
England, should be started or not — i. e., sink all 

91 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

ships, enemy and neutral, at sight. Falkenhayn 
was for this, the Chancellor against, and von Tir- 
pitz lost. The decision, of course, was made by the 
Emperor. 

Great advertising efforts are being made on the 
question of the Fourth War Loan. It will, of 
course, be announced as successful. 

There are undoubtedly two submarine parties in 
Germany and there may be an unlimited blockade 
of England. 

I think Germany, as at present advised, is willing, 
if merchant ships are disarmed, to agree to sink 
no boats whatever without warning and without 
putting passengers and crew in safety. The Ad- 
miralty approves of this. 

One of the American correspondents publishes an 
article in the Lokal Anseiger on America, in which 
he makes some statements no loyal American should 
make just now. 

The "illness" of von Tirpitz is announced. I 
think it means his resignation, and have just cabled, 
although it is possible that his resignation may 
never be publicly announced. For one thing, the 
Kaiser and arm}'^ people began to think it was a bad 
innovation to have any officer or official appealing 
to cheap newspapers and the *'man in the street" 
in a conflict with superior authority. 

I heard that at Charleville conference both the 
Chancellor and von Jagow said they would resign 
if von Tirpitz's policy of unlimited submarine war 
on England was adopted. 

92 



GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK A^IERICA 

The food question is becoming really acute — the 
village people are about starving in some sections 
and are not as well off as the people in the big 
towns; it is the policy to keep the people in the 
cities as content as possible in order to prevent riots, 
demonstrations, etc. 

Some Germans have asked me if the sending of 
a German "Colonel House" to America would be 
agreeable to the President. Probably the Envoy 
would be Solf, and he could talk informally to the 
President and prominent people. If sent he would 
require a safe conduct from England and France. 

I hear the submarines now are mostly engaged 
in mine laying, at the mouth of the Thames. 

Events are beginning to march. At first von Tir- 
pitz's "illness" was announced, then came his resig- 
nation. Yesterday was his birthday and a demon- 
stration was expected ; there were many police out, 
but I could see no demonstrators. The row may 
come in the Reichstag. 

There are two sources of danger; first, a failure 
at Verdun and the new food regulations may make 
people ready to accept Tirpitz's guarantee that if 
he is allowed his way the war can be won and 
ended. He has a large following already who 
favour this plan ; second, there are some Reichstag 
members and others who think the Tirpitz people 
can never be reconciled unless there is a new Chan- 
cellor. 

93 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

The Chancellor sent for me Friday. I think the 
Chancellor wants to keep peace with America and 
also wishes to make a general peace. He talked, or 
rather I talked, a little about terms. He still wants 
to hang on to Belgium, but I think will give most 
of it up ; but is fixed for an indemnity from France. 
The loss of life here is affecting every one, the 
Chancellor is a very good man, and I think honestly 
desires an honourable peace. 

Potatoes are restricted from to-day, lo pounds 
per head in 12 days, not much, bacon and lard prac- 
tically not to be had, butter only in small quantities 
and meat out of reach of the poor. 

I told the Chancellor I thought a great source of 
danger to the good relations of Germany and U. S. 
A. was in Mexico, that if we had trouble there, had 
to raise a large army and rouse the military spirit 
at home, the President might find it hard to hold 
the people. This struck him as a new view, as most 
Germans think that Mexican troubles are to their 
advantage, and I am sure Villa's attacks are "made 
in Germany." 

I shall not come home; both the Chancellor and 
von Jagow have begged me not to go. 

I sent a cable about the possible stirring up of our 
coloured people by propagandists. I notice that 
there are great fires in many cities of the South. 

It is reported that Prussian State Railways were 
given the banks as additional security for the last 

94 



GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 

loan, but I do not see how this could be, as the rail- 
ways are Prussian and the Loan Imperial. 

Several South American diplomats here think 
that in case of war between U. S. and Germany 
public opinion in their countries will demand the 
seizure of the German ships and possible war. 

April, igi6. I am just off to the Reichstag where 
the Chancellor is to speak. I have no news here 
and none from America, but it seems to me five 
boats sunk almost at once will rather strain things 
at home. Here they do not want war with America. 
Perhaps von Tirpitz before leaving gave these sub- 
marine commanders these orders to sink at sight. 

I think the Germans will eventually encircle and 
take Verdun, mostly now for moral effect. 

Von Jagow will shortly give Conger {Associated 
Press) an interview disclaiming any intention on 
Germany's part of attacking America after the war. 
"A guilty conscience, etc.," and "Qui s'excuse, 
s'accuse." 

Every night fifty million Germans cry themselves 
to sleep because all Mexico has not risen against us. 

Part of Germany goes soon on meat ration. The 
food question is becoming acute, but they will last 
through here. 

I think that the Germans would now, in spite of 
previous statements by a high authority, welcome 
the intervention of the President looking toward 
peace. Colonel House is so relied on here that he 

95 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

would be doubly welcome as the bird with the olive 
branch. 

It looks more and more as if the issue of the cam- 
paign would be peace or war! On this issue the 
Germans at the last moment will have to side with 
the President. 

The recent sessions of the Reichstag have been 
lively. Liebknecht caused a row on several occa- 
sions. Once by interrupting the Chancellor to imply 
that the Germans were not free, next to deny that 
the Germans had not wished the war, and another 
time by calling attention to the attempts of the Ger- 
mans to induce Mohammedan and Irish prisoners 
of war to desert to the German arms, the Irish being 
attacked through Sir Roger Casement. Liebknecht 
finally enraged the Government by calling out that 
the loan subscription was a swindle. 

The German-American spies and traitors are 
hard at work at 48 Potsdammer Strasse and also 
at the Oversea News Service, a concern paid for by 

Krupps. Mr. , in addition, gains money by 

getting permits for goods to go out of Germany, 
capitalising his "pull" as it were. Some of the 
money for their dirty work is given them by Rose- 
lius of Bremen, proprietor of the **Caffee Hag." 
, a traitor, who also writes against the Presi- 
dent, also works with the gang. 

This cry in America that German babies have not 
sufficient milk is all rot. One of our doctors has 
reported on the subject. The cry is only raised to 
get a hole in the British blockade. 

96 



GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 

The Germans are going- at Verdun carefully, and 
an imitation of each French position or trench they 
wish to take — planned from airmen's and spies' re- 
ports — is constructed behind the German lines and 
the German soldiers practise taking it until they are 
judged letter perfect and are put to work to capture 
the original. 

It is said the Germans have developed a subma- 
rine periscope so small as to be almost invisible, 
which works up and down so that only at intervals, 
for a second or so, does it appear above the water. 
Also, it is said the wireless vibrations by means of 
copper plates at each end are transmitted through 
the boat, and every member of the crew learns the 
wireless code, and no matter where working can 
catch the vibrations. 

Note about the Sussex and other four ships just 
in. I think Germany is now determined to keep 
peace with America as the plain people are con- 
vinced that otherwise the war will be lengthened — 
a contingency abhorrent to all. 

May, ipi6. I delivered the last American note 
to von Jagow to-day. He said they probably would 
not answer, and then engaged me in gossipy con- 
versation. 

These people want peace and will gladly accept 
the President as mediator. 

The Pope, they think, will want brokerage — a 
''Makler Lohn"- — as they call it — concessions for 
the church, such as the return of the Jesuits, etc. 

If they get good and sick of war here, perhaps 

97 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

they may not feel like revenge after all — but there 
is an ever-present danger we must prepare for. 

The fact that I v^as given detailed instructions 
as to leaving, etc. — which they undoubtedly learned, 
with their wonderful spy system — helped the Sussex 
settlement. 

The Chancellor and I became great friends as a 
result of my stay at the Hauptquartier. The 
League of Truth gang attacked me lately. The Gov- 
ernment published a certificate in the Official Ga- 
zette to the effect that I was their fair-haired boy, 
etc. — very nice of them. I really think they recog- 
nise that the propaganda was an awful failure and 
want to inaugurate the era of good feeling. 

I did not go to the front at the Hauptquartier as 
reported. I had enough to do in Charleville, but 
did witness the splendid relief work being done by 
the Americans who are feeding 2,200,000 of the 
population of Northern France. Twenty thousand 
of the inhabitants of Lille, Roubaix-Tourcoing, are 
being sent under circumstances of great barbarity 
to work in the fields in small villages. I spoke to 
the Chancellor and he promised to remedy this. 

Germans say they will take Verdun. A military 
treaty with Sweden is reported; a large Swedish 
Military Commission is now here, receiving much 
attention. 

While at Charleville, in connection with Ameri- 
can work, I asked, at one village, to see the German 
Army stores so as to convince myself that the Ger- 
man Army was not using the stores from America. 

98 



GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 

I saw that one-half the stores came from Holland. 

I think the psychological moment is approaching 
when Colonel House should appear as the Presi- 
dent's White Emissary of Peace. 

While the food question here is pressing, the har- 
vest will be good, if present' indications continue. 
Rye is the principal crop and this is harvested about 
July I2th. I think, however, Germany can last, and 
in very desperation may try a great offensive which 
may break the French lines and change the whole 
position. The people here, although tired of war, 
are well disciplined and will see this thing through 
without revolution. 

We are rather in calm after the last crisis. The 
Chancellor sent for me and said he hoped we would 
do something to England or propose a general 
peace, otherwise his position here will become, he 
thinks, rather hard. Delbriick, vice-chancellor, very 
hostile to America, is out — failure as Minister of 
Interior to organise food supply is the real reason. 

Yesterday I had a talk with the Chancellor. The 
occasion was the Polish Relief question which I 
shall now take up direct with Helfferich, who, as I 
predicted, is the new Minister of the Interior and 
Vice-Chancellor. He is a very business-like man 
and did much for the favourable settlement of our 
last crisis. 

The Chancellor seemed rather downcast yester- 
day, without apparent cause. He says that Ger- 
many from now on will have two months of hard- 

99 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

ship on the food question, but that after that things 
will be all right. The crops, as I have seen on my 
shooting place, are magnificent and the rye harvest 
will probably begin even before July 15th. 

Mrs. Gerard has just returned from a week in 
Budapest with her sister. The Hungarians are 
once more gay and confident. The Italians, their 
hereditary foes, are being* driven back, and on the 
Russian front there seems to be a sort of tacit truce 
i*— no fighting and visiting in trenches, etc. — terms 
)f great friendliness. 

(This was the beginning of the fraternisation 
which led, a year later, to the collapse of Russia.) 

At the races here last Sunday there was an abso- 
lutely record crowd and more money bet than on 
any previous day in German racing history. The 
cheaper field and stands were so full of soldiers that 
the crowd seemed grey, which goes to show that the 
last man is not at the front. 

State Socialism makes advances over here. A 
proposition is now discussed to compel the young 
men who are earning large wages to save a part 
thereof. 

On the Sussex question, I got a colleague to ask 
about the punishment of the Commander and to say 
at the Foreign Office, after he had once been re- 
fused any information, that I had heard that the 
people at large in America believed the Commander 
has received "Pour le Merite." Von Jagow said 
that he was sure that this was not so, but that he 
did not know the name of the Commander, and 

100 



GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 

that it was not "usual" to tell what punishment had 
been given. So that I suppose the matter will rest, 
unless I get orders to ask formally about the pun- 
ishment. 

The German military people and ruling Junker 
class are furious at the settlement with America, 
and abuse America, the President and me indiscrim- 
inately. 

Anything the President says about peace is prom^ 
inently placed in the newspapers. 

Yesterday in a debate in the Reichstag over the 
censorship, member Stresemann, National Liberal 
(the party which now holds the balance of power), 
violently abused President Wilson and said he was 
not wanted as a peace-maker. All applauded except 
the Socialists — so I think the President had better 
say nothing more about peace for the present. 
What he has said has done much good and has 
pleased the Government here, if not the Reichstag. 
Although von Jagow is a Junker of Junkers, the 
Junkers are against him and claim he is too weak. 
He may be bounced. 

The crops are very fine. 

Undoubtedly we shall have another crisis when 
the extremists here demand a "reckless" U-boat war 
because we are doing nothing to England. 

Germany will last through on the food question. 

I have heard reports that the Turks are tired of 
German rule and almost ready to flop. 

I am to meet Prince Buelow, ex-Chancellor, to- 
morrow and may fish up something interesting. 

lOI 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

The Kaiser has gfone to the front, probably Rus- 
sian. Next war loan will be 12 milliards. 

Helfferich lunched here last Sunday. He speaks 
English fairly well. Zimmermann is laid up with 
the gout. 

In the Reichstag debate yesterday, Streseman, 
applauded by all except Socialists, said that Ger- 
many threw away Wilson as a peace-maker. How- 
ever, the Government is pleased with President's 
peace talk, as it keeps the people from thinking of 
food and U-boat crises. 

U-boat question will come up again, when Pan- 
Germanists and Conservatives demand a reckless 
U-boat war because we have done nothing against 
England. 

Harden's paper has been confiscated again. 

June, igi6. I am sorry to lose Ruddock, who is 
sent to Belgium, but it is a good appointment, as 
his knowledge of German and relations here will 
help matters. 

The debates in the Reichstag have been quite in- 
teresting yesterday and the day before. The Chan- 
cellor, irritated by the anonymous attacks on him 
in pamphlets, etc., made a fine defence. In the 
course of the debate allusions w^re made to Presi- 
dent Wilson and the U-boat question. The U-boat 
question may break loose again any day. 

I do not think that either Austria or Germany 
wishes President Wilson to lay down any peace 
conditions. There may possibly be a Congress after 

102 



GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 

the Peace Congress, but meanwhile all parties here 
feel that America has nothing to do with peace 
conditions. America can bring the parties together, 
but that is all. The speech about the rights of small 
peoples has, I hear, made the Austrians furious, as 
Austria is made up of many nationalities and the 
Germans say that if the rights of small peoples and 
peoples choosing their own sovereignty is to be 
discussed, the Irish question, the Indian question 
and the Boer question, the Egyptian question and 
many others involving the Entente Allies must be 
discussed. I think that generally there is a big 
change in public opinion and the Germans are be- 
ginning to realise that the President is for peace 
with Germany. 

The Germans expect that by September prepara- 
tions will be finished and that the Suez Canal will 
be cannonaded, bombed and mined so that it will 
dry up, and then the Indian-Afghan troubles will 
begin. 

June, ipi6. The President's peace talks carried 
over the dangerous moment after the submarine 
submission. Von Jagow told me that because of 
debates in Reichstag the President must not think 
he is not welcome as mediator. 

Crops look well. 

The break on Austro-Russian front is reported 
to have been caused by wholesale desertions of Ru- 
thenian troops to Russians. 

The editor of the National Zeitung, responsible 
for the fake interview with me, has been "fired" 

103 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

from that paper which has published a notice to 
that effect. 

Grand Admiral von Koester made a speech imply- 
ing that reckless submarine war should be taken up 
and England thus defeated. He is retired, but is 
head of the Navy League, a concern backed by the 
Government, possessing a million members and 
much political influence. 

Apropos of hyphenated Americans, a friend tells 
me that when he was secretary here some years 
ago, a certain Congressman tried for six years to 
get presented at Court, insisting that he be presented 
as a "German- American." The Kaiser turned him 
down, saying he knew no such thing as a ''German- 
American," and the Congressman finally consented 
to be presented as an American. 

The U-boat question will come up again, say in 
three months, unless we get in serious trouble in 
Mexico, when it will come up sooner. 

Edwin Emerson has been sent out of the country, 
I think to serve in the Turkish Army in some ca- 
pacity, perhaps paymaster or some such job. 

The Foreign Office continues to protect these 
American mud-slingers — such as the "League of 
Truth" which is run by a German named Marten, 
posing as an American and a dentist (American citi- 
zen) named Mueller — these circulate a pamphlet 
entitled, "What Shall We Do With Wilson," etc., 
and are the gang who insulted the American flag 
by putting it wrapped in mourning on a wreath on 

104 



What shall we do 
with Wilson? 



by 



John L. Stoddard. 



Meran. Tyrol. 1916. 






Printing-office F. Pieticha, Meran, Tyrol. 



COVER OF THE PAMPHLET FEROCIOUSLY ABUSIVE 
OF PRESIDENT WILSON. ISSUED BY THE EX-TRAVEL 
LECTURER, JOHN L. STODDARD 



GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AlVIERICA 

the statue of Frederick the Great with a placard, 
"Wilson and his Press do not represent America." 

Letters, codes, etc., for Bernstorff and individuals 
are sent to America as follows: the letters are 
photographed on a reduced scale so that a letter a 
foot square appears as an inch and a half square. 
These little prints are put in the layers of a shoe 
heel of a travelling American or elsewhere, book 
cover, hat band, etc., and then rephotographed and 
enlarged in America. Also messengers travel steer- 
age and put things in the mattress of a fellow pas- 
senger and go back to the ship after landing in 
New York and collect the stuff. 

A German friend, just returned from Austria, 
says the feeling there against America is very 
strong on accoimt of the Dumba incident. 

Yesterday I was told by a German that the Ger- 
man army had aeroplanes which develop 300 H. P., 
and would soon have some of 1000 H. P. 

July, ipi6. Every one in this Embassy is get- 
ting to the breaking point. Nerves do not last for- 
ever, and the strain of living in a hostile country is 
great. The Germans, too, are on edge. They are 
going to take away our privilege of speaking to 
prisoners alone; this because they think I learned 
of the shooting of the second Irishman at Limburg 
from prisoners. As a matter of fact I did not, but 
cannot, of course, say how I did learn. 

The Russian prisoners are being slowly starved, 
the French and English get packages from home. 

105 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

There are rumors that a Bavarian regiment which 
was ordered a second time to take a position, which 
the Prussians lost at Verdun, refused and was 
ordered to be decimated, and that then the Crown 
Prince of Bavaria threatened to march all the 
Bavarian troops home unless the order to decimate 
was rescinded. I do not believe the rumour, but its 
circulation and other events such as the refusal 
of the Bavarians lately to adopt a common post- 
age stamp, shows there is a little irritation grow- 
ing between Prussia and Bavaria. For years be- 
fore the war the Bavarian Comic papers cartooned 
the Prussians, common and royal, but like every 
other movement nothing will result. 

There is much underground work for the re- 
sumption of reckless submarine war going on, all 
part of a campaign to upset the Chancellor. Von 
Billow, Ex-Chancellor, is working hard. He, how- 
ever, since his row with the Emperor over the 
''Telegraph" interview, which he passed as correct, 
will never be accepted by His Majesty. Neverthe- 
less, he is becoming a focal point for opposition. 

The Chancellor and his party are very timid 
about attacks. For instance, they will do nothing 
against Emerson, Mueller and that crew, which 
insults indiscriminately our fiag, our President, the 
Chancellor, Zimmermann and me, because, as Zim- 
mermann frankly told me, they are afraid of at- 
tacks. Mueller on the 4th of July hung out the 
American flag in mourning and circulated copies of 
the Declaration of Independence charged with a 

106 



GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 

bloody hand and a black cross. I have filed in vain 
affidavits with the Foreign Office, by people who say 
he has threatened to shoot me at sight. 

The Germans seem to fear the Russian attacks 
more than the English and French. They claim to 
have the measure of the English, and not to fear 
their offensive. 

Dr. John R. Mott has been here. He made a 
great impression. I had him at lunch with the 
Chancellor, Zimmermann, and officials of the pris- 
oner department and War Ministry. 

Mass feeding of the people has begun. They pay 
a few pfennigs per meal. 

I have heard rumours lately of actual dissatis- 
faction among soldiers at front and of many being 
transferred, but this unrest also will have no defi- 
nite result. 

Constant rain lately will damage the harvest 
and rot the potatoes to some extent. Nevertheless, 
as I have often said, the Germans will last. Hol- 
land has allowed more food in lately. 

The long confinement will make many prisoners 
insane. Many old men at Ruhleben, living six in 
a horse's stall or in dim hay lofts, simply turn their 
faces to the wall and refuse even to complain. 

The statement in the American papers that our 
National Guard could not mobilise for Mexico 
because of lack of sleeping cars caused much ridi- 
cule here, where they go to the front in cattle 
cars. 

107 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

July, ipi6. A committee called the National 
Committee for an Honourable Peace has been 
formed. Prince Wedel is at the head. Most of 
the people are friends of the Chancellor. One is 
an editor of the Frankfurter Zeitimg which is 
the Chancellor's organ. On August 1st, fifty 
speakers of this Committee will begin to speak, 
probably the opposition will come into their meet- 
ings and try to speak or break up the meetings. 

The Lokal Anseiger, also a government organ, 
prints an editorial to the effect that Germany may 
take up ruthless submarine war again. Great num- 
bers of U-boats are being built and in September 
operations will be on a big scale, though the Chan- 
cellor will try to keep them to cruiser warfare. 

The prisoner question on all sides is growing 
acute. The Germans sent me a note to-day threat- 
ening stern reprisals if the alleged bad treatment 
of their prisoners in Russia does not stop. 

We can no longer talk to prisoners alone. Von 
Jagow told me that after the visit of Madam 
Sasenoff, or Samsenoff, to a Russian prisoners' 
camp, there was a riot, but the real reason is that 
the Germans have much to conceal. The prison ^ 
food now is a starvation ration. 

The Alliance of the Six, really an organization 
fostered by big iron business in Westphalia, is 
very active for annexation.. This wants to get the 
French iron mines and coal, and so control the 
iron business of the Continent and perhaps Eu- 
rope. 

T08 



GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AIMERICA 

A man from Syria passed through here recently 
and gave me most interesting accounts of the state 
of affairs there. The Turks are oppressing the 
Arabians and the revolt of the Grand Sheriff of 
Mecca may have great effects in this war. This 
man says that the English are building two rail- 
roads from Suez into the desert and the Germo- 
Turks are building toward the canal from the 
North. For the Canal attack there are, at pres- 
ent, principally Austrian troops assembled. The 
Turks are beginning to take Greeks from the Coast 
cities into the interior of Asia Minor and are op- 
pressing the Syrian Arabian cities, such as Beirut, 
where thousands are dying of starvation. At the 
Islahje-Aleppo R. R., 30 Turkish soldiers a day 
die from cholera. The Germans, by their precau- 
tions, escape. He passed 147 German auto trucks 
in the Cilician mountains bound for Bagdad. Also 
saw the British prisoners from Kut el Amara, who 
are dying of dysentery, being compelled to walk 
in the hot sun from Kut. He thinks the English 
and the Grand Sheriff will transfer the title of 
head of the religion from the Sultan at Constanti- 
nople to either the Sultan of Egypt or some new 
Sultan to be established as an Arabian Sultan, per- 
haps at Bagdad if the Russians and English take 
it, or at Mecca, and he considers this movement of 
Arabians against Turks may assume great pro- 
portions. 

There is still talk here of a resumption of reck- 
less submarine war which question is complicated 

109 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

and involved in the eternal efforts of the Conserva- 
tives to get the Chancellor out. 

The recognition of the ''merchant submarine" 
has made a very good impression here. 

The plain people are eager for peace but those 
interested in carrying on the war have the upper 
hand. 

The harvest is good, and is now being gathered. 

A number of navy and (which is significant) 
army officers visited von Tirpitz, lately in his Black 
Forest Retreat and gave him a testimonial. 

There is prospect that what is called here a 
"Burg Frieden" (Peace of the City) will be de- 
clared between the Chancellor and the principal 
Conservative newspapers. 

One of the American correspondents back from 
Verdun says that a corps commander said his corps 
took no prisoners. 

I think many of the Hungarians are for peace. 
I get this from Andrassy's son-in-law who is also 
a member of the lower house. Tisza, however, is 
still in full control. 

Prince Leopold's (he is a brother-in-law of the 
Kaiser) stags have destroyed vegetables of the plain 
people (as in the days of William Rufus) and peo- 
ple dare write letters, and Liberal papers dare 
publish them complaining of these depredations. 



IIO 



CHAPTER VIII 

GE:RMANY's early plots in MEXICO 

The Diary Concluded 

A UGUST, ipi6. Count Andrassy, leader of the 
-^-2 opposition to Tisza in Hungary, has been here 
for some time. He lunched with us one day and I 
had a talk with him in German. Andrassy is rather 
old and tired. Andrassy's father, the Prime Min- 
ister, was originally a great friend of Germany. 

It is possible that Andrassy through German in- 
fluence may be made Minister of Foreign Affairs 
instead of Burian. This is to be the first step in 
a German coup d'etat to take place on the death of 
Francis Joseph — the throne successor to be given 
Austria alone, and Prince Eitel Fritz, the Kaiser's 
favourite son, to be King of Hungary with pos- 
sibly a Czech kingdom in Bohemia. 

Andrassy had an audience with the Kaiser here. 
Andrassy is apparently friendly with America and 
is also for peace. 

Von Tirpitz is out zvith a statement practically 
demanding war with America. I am surprised that 
the newspapers are allowed to publish it. Very 
likely it will not be permitted to go out but it ought 
to be known in America. 

Ill 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Germany probably will come out with a strong 
note about Poland, refusing help and saying har- 
vest is sufficient. This is not true as to food for 
babies who cannot live on rye and wheat, but need 
condensed milk. 

The treatment of prisoners is going from bad to 
worse. The Chancellor and Foreign Office can do 
nothing against the military party. 

Hoover, Professor Kellog, and I are all very 
much discouraged about Polish and other relief 
questions. The Germans are getting more and 
more disagreeable about these matters, even though 
they are for the benefit of Germany. Warwick 
Greene, of the Rockefeller Foundation, being a new 
arrival is more hopeful, but that will soon wear 
off. 

The Germans are getting a blacklist of their own. 
One Barthmann, an American, who sells American 
shoes in Germany, wanted to get his pass stamped 
to go to America, and permission to come back, 
and was told that would only be done if the Cham- 
ber of Commerce (Handels-Kammer) consents; 
you see the connection — no American goods for 
Germany. 

The Jews here are almost on the edge of being 
"pogrommed." There is a great prejudice against 
them, especially in naval and military circles, be- 
cause they have been industrious and have made 
money. Officers openly talk of repudiating the 
War Loan which they say would only mean a loss 
for the Jews. 

112 



GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 

The Germans say they have new and horrible in- 
ventions which will end the war soon. 

I supposed that because I had some acquaintance 
with German watering places and German-Ameri- 
cans I knew a little about Germany. I was wrong. 
No casual traveller ever gets to know the military 
caste nor do the members of that caste travel ex- 
cept on "business." 

The members of the military caste live like Spar- 
tans and are consoled by the fact that they rule 
the country and look down on the merchant class. 
They feel that they have created modern indus- 
trial Germany. The military caste (of which the 
naval and all government bureaus are branches) 
has organised the nation for war with the efficiency 
of the managers of a great American corporation. 
The government is an absolutism. No Jew can be- 
come an officer. Officers of crack regiments do 
not go to the homes of persons in any kind of busi- 
ness. A business man is called a "Kaufmann," 
as we speak of a house painter. Some tame pro- 
fessors are paid by the State to give an impression 
of "Kultur." 

This war is now a war for conquest or money. 
All people tell me that we must have "pay for so 
m.uch blood." "If we don't keep Belgium there 
will be a revolution. Who is to pay for the War?" 
A Socialist who referred yesterday in the Reichs- 
tag to the Kaiser's speech of the beginning of 
the war which stated this was not a war to get 

113 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

territory, was well sat upon. Even the Socialists 
are all for war against Italy. 

None of the German colonies is fit for Euro- 
peans. Germany last year proposed joint inter- 
vention in Mexico to Bngland. If successful Ger- 
many will try to get a foothold in the Western 
Hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine is like a red 
rag to a bull to every German. 

Relations with members of the Government here 
are quite agreeable but there is not an effective 
government at present. The Chancellor will take 
no decisive action and leaves matters to depart- 
ment heads who fight with other department heads. 
The Emperor saw fit to follow the traditions of 
1870 and go to the field taking the Chancellor and 
heads of many departments with him, hence great 
governmental confusion, but this does not affect 
military organisation. He is bored by the Chancel- 
lor, a good man, but of no action or decision. Von 
Falkenhayn is the Emperor's favourite. He is the 
chief of the General Staff. Von Tirpitz and von 
Mueller (also naval) have great weight. The 
Kaiser is thus surrounded by military influences. 

Saw summaries of the news published by the 
General Staff and given to the Emperor to read. 
He gets only German-American news from Amer- 
ica and no bad news from anywhere. On the Lusi- 
tania case there is a disposition to think, because 
we were not warlike over Mexico, we will stand 

114 



GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 

anything. The Kaiser will not see me because 
of the delivery of arms by Americans to the Allies 
and has so stated. 

There is no shortage of food supply. I was told 
yesterday they did not need our Polish Relief Com- 
mittee for German Poland as Germany can take 
care of this alone. The hate of Americans is in- 
tense. But this hate can be turned off and on by 
the Government. The people believe everything 
they see in the papers. The monetary situation is 
not bad. All the money for war supplies has been 
spent in Germany, except perhaps for a few horses, 
etc., from Scandinavia. 

The Chancellor and von Jagow have been in 
Vienna. Von Jagow told me only on current busi- 
ness, but this was a diplomatic statement. I be- 
lieve they went to settle the fate of Poland. I 
hear Prussia w^ants an independent Poland and 
Austria wants to make it part of the Austrian Em- 
pire. In any event I think Prussia will secure the 
organising of the army which will soon be raised. 
A prominent Pole told me two days ago that the 
peasants were coddled by Russia, whose motto in 
Poland was "divide et impera," and that they will 
violently resent being drafted into the Prussian 
army. 

The bitter attacks on the Chancellor continue. 
At a recent meeting in Bavaria resolutions were 
passed that the first objective of the war was to 
get rid of the Chancellor and the second to "clean 

115 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

out the Anglophile Foreign Office," which pre- 
vented Germany from resorting to ''reckless" meth- 
ods for the swift winning of the war. 

As a son-in-law of a high official told me to-day, 
the break between the military and navy on one side 
and the Civil Government on the other has widened 
almost into civil war. The same man told me 
that the Kaiser has lately become quite apathetic 
and lets events take their course. 

One of my attaches has broken down completely, 
cries when spoken to; living in a fiercely hostile 
atmosphere is not agreeable and I wonder how 
long the rest of us can hold out. 

The harvest is very good, but does not provide 
fat, and as yet, meat. But the starving out busi- 
ness I have always said was an "iridescent" dream. 

New men, 80,000 in this vicinity alone, are being, 
called to the colours. 

Every one here is getting more on razor edge, 
prisoners are treated more roughly and get worse 
food. Bavaria is getting restless and dissatisfied, 
this will not amount to anything definite but is a 
sign of the times. 

I went to Herringsdorff for a few days of swim- 
ming. At a concert in the evening a man recited 
a poem he said he had written about "having bled 
enough." He was vehemently applauded. Quite 
a contrast to the days when the best actors in Ger- 
many were not ashamed to spout the "HYMN OF 
HATE"! 

The military people use the censorship even 

116 



GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 

against papers friendly to the Chancellor and Ger- 
mans certainly can hate each other as thoroughly 
and scientifically as they do most other nations. 
Dr. Alonzo Taylor thinks that in peace times some 
one fed this nation too much meat. 

The newspapers are preparing the people for the 
entry of Roumania. 

Professor , a school friend of Tisza's and 

Burian's who was recently in Austria, saw Burian 
and says Burian is ready and even anxious to make 
an arbitration treaty with America and also send 
an Ambassador in Dumba's place to Washington. 
This is out of my jurisdiction. He says that to- 
morrow or next day there will be an interpellation 
in the Hungarian Chamber about sending an Am- 
bassador to America. 

The National Liberals probably will unite with 
the Conservatives and demand a strong hold on 
Belgium, if not actual possession of that country, 
as one of the objects of the war. 

This Union of National Liberals and Conserva- 
tives is dangerous and may mean a resumption of 
unrestricted submarine warfare. 

The entry of Roumania took every one by sur- 
prise. Beldiman, the Roumanian Minister here, 
was visiting the reigning Prince of Hohenzollern 
Sigmaringen, brother of the Roumanian King, and 
apparently knew nothing of the danger of a break. 

To-day Hindenburg is named Chief of the Gen- 
eral Staff, and his Chief of Staff, Ludendorff, is 

117 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

made Quartermaster General, Falkenhayn, former 
Chief of Staff is bounced without even the excuse 
of a diplomatic illness. This is all a great conces- 
sion to popular opinion. I do not know where Hin- 
denburg stands with reference to America, but have 
heard that he is a reasonable man. Of course, here 
the Army has as much to say in foreign affairs as 
the Foreign Office, if not more. When I was at 
the Great General Headquarters, Falkenhayn, al- 
though I knew him, did not call on me, and dodged 
me. He did not even appear at the Kaiser's table 
when I lunched there. From all this I judge he was 
against America on the submarine question. I also 
have heard that when Helfferich was talking be- 
fore the Kaiser, in favour of peace with America, 
Falkenhayn interrupted him, but was told by the 
Kaiser to ''stick to his last" or words to that ef- 
fect. 

These people here are now nervous and unstrung 
and actually believe that America will now enter 
the war against them. It is impossible to conceive 
of the general breakdown of nerves among this peo- 
ple. 

/ have heard lately of men as old as 4/ being 
taken for the Army. 

Zimmermann has now gone on a vacation, his 
place being temporarily filled by von Treutler, 
Prussian Minister to Bavaria, who since the com- 
mencement of the war has been with the Kaiser. I 
judge this means the Kaiser is looking personally 

118 



GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 

into matters at the Foreign Office. Von Treutler 
is, I think, against the resumption of reckless sub- 
marine war. He is lunching with me to-day. He 
is rather the type of intelligent-man-of-the-world 
and sportsman, and has little of the Prussian de- 
sire to "imponieren" by putting his voice two oc- 
taves lower and glaring at one like an enraged bull- 
frog. 

Dr. William Bayard Hale, of Mexican fame, who 
is in Berlin representing the Hearst papers, has 
become very thick with officials here. Von Jagow 
and Zimmermann are much impressed by him. 

The Germans may hate the President, but there 
are in America hundreds of thousands of Czechs 
from Bohemia, Poles from Poland, Slovaks, Ru- 
thenians, Croatians and Slavs from Hungary, Rou- 
manians, Italians, Greeks, Russians, Scotch, Bel- 
gians, and French who hate; the Germans. 

I believe the Germans want an excuse to resume 
reckless submarine war and an American corre- 
spondent has taken the job of making bad feeling 
to justify such a course. 

September, igi6. As these people get desperate 
the submarine question gets deeper and deeper 
under their skin. I really think that it is only a 
question of time. 

Of course, from what I learn here Greece is sure 
to come in and this is expected here. 

As the Consul General at Hamburg has reported, 

IIQ 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

serious riots have occurred there, two by the poor 
classes, mostly women, and one by students. The 
crowd shouted "Down with the Kaiser," called for 
an end of the war, calling for unlimited submarine 
war against England. 

The hate of Americans grows daily, if indeed it 
is possible to be greater. 

Ira Nelson Morris, American Minister to Swe- 
den, was here. He and his wife are charming peo- 
ple. He is very popular in Sweden. Elkus is also 
here on his way to Constantinople. H any one can 
"get away" with that difficult post he can. I took 
Elkus to see von Jagow and had him at lunch with 
von Treutler, the man in Zimmermann's place. I 
talked with Elkus to von Jagow about Syrian Re- 
lief. A Syrian, whose name I cannot give away, 
says the Turkish Government reported to our Em- 
bassy in Turkey that the harvest in Syria was the 
best in years, whereas, in truth this year's harvest, 
on account of drought and last year's on account of 
locusts, are the worst in 35 years. Missionaries 
have told me that Syrians are starving. 

A fact for the Russian born — Germany does not 
recognise the American citizenship or naturalisa- 
tion of a person born in Russia. 

Yesterday there was a conference of all party 
leaders at the Chancellor's. I understand nothing 
was said about America or submarine question. I 
doubt this. The Press here and certain other agen- 

120 



GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 

cies are trying to convinced America that all is 
peaceful, but Baron Mumm two days ago told 
Elkus, in this house, that the ruthless submarine 
war undoubtedly would be resumed. 

In, general conversation with von Jagow, re- 
cently, he said that the offensive on the Somme 
could not continue without the great supply of shells 
from America. He also said that recently a Ger- 
man submarine submerged in the Channel had to 
allow 41 ships to pass, and that he was sure that 
each ship was full of ammunition and soldiers but 
probably had some protecting American angels on 
board, and, therefore, the submarine did not tor- 
pedo without warning. He seemed quite bitter. 

The wife of an American newspaper corre- 
spondent was recently attacked in the street. Of 
course, the husband will not cable this to America. 
Two stenographers from this Embassy were re- 
cently slapped on coming out of a theatre because 
they were speaking English. 

Reventlow's paper was recently suppressed and 
Reventlow forbidden to write without special per- 
mission. This is a good sign from the Chancellor. 

Dr. Hale was recently given a special trip to the 
West front, and allowed to talk to the Crown 
Prince, etc. 

December, igi6. The Germans are simply de- 
lighted with the President's peace note. Only a 
few cranks or conservative papers are against it. 

121 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

I saw Zimmermann the day after my arrival. 
He was most friendly and said he hoped he and I 
would be able, as usual, to settle everything in a 
friendly manner. 

Yesterday he lunched here and gave me the Ger- 
man reply after lunch. He told me at the first talk 
that he, the Chancellor, Hindenburg and Luden- 
dorfif were all working together. Most people here 
say that Hindenburg and Ludendorff are at pres- 
ent the real rulers of Germany. Zimmermann fe- 
marked that there was no danger from "reckless" 
submarine war. 

Zimmermann said he regretted the sending of the 
Belgians to Germany but it was hard now to go 
back on what they had done. I have some hope 
that a retreat may be arranged — possibly by send- 
ing the Belgians back gradually and saying noth- 
ing about it. 

The American Chamber of Commerce are to give 
a big dinner January sixth to welcome me back. 
Zimmermann and von Gwinner, head of Deutsche 
Bank, have agreed to speak and many prominent 
Germans have accepted. 

The Press department of the Foreign Office has 
been reorganised by Zimmermann, and Hammann, 
the former head, fired. The new head is Major 
Deutelmoser, formerly of the General Staff, a per- 
sonal friend of mine. 

The Emperor is at Potsdam and consulted with 
Zimmermann, General von Kessel, etc., as to the 
reply to the President's peace note. 

122 



GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 

Berlin is much more melancholy than when I 
left. General von Kessel came to our American 
Colony Christmas tree for poor Berlin children. It 
was very pathetic. One little kid got up and prayed 
for peace and every one wept. I hope to get to see 
Ludendorff and Hindenburg soon and see how they 
feel toward America. 

I went to Ruhleben, the British civilian camp, 
yesterday to tell the prisoners that all over 45 go 
home. It was quite a Christmas gift as 700 there 
are over that age. (Note: don't think this agree- 
ment of Germany and England ever went into ef- 
fect!) 

January, ipi/. Germany wants a peace confer- 
ence in order to make a separate peace on good 
terms to them with France and Russia, then hopes 
to finish England by submarines, then later take the 
scalp of Japan, Russia and France separately. The 
Allies ought to remember what Ben Franklin said 
about hanging together or separately. I get the 
above scheme from very good authority. 

The weather is most depressing; dark, and rain 
every day. All hands seem cross. Zimmermann, 
I think, finds it much more difficult to be the re- 
sponsible first than the criticising second. It is not 
as easy as it looked to him. 

The Kaiser stated the other day that he did not 
expect peace now, that the English would try a 
great ofifensive in the spring and would fail. 

123 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

'Herbert Hoover writes me that the Germans are 
violating all their pledges in Belgium. He expects 
a year of great difficulties. I hear this confirmed 
on best authority and that even the German of- 
ficial who is supposed to see that food is not sent 
from Belgium to Germany in violation of Ger- 
many's pledges sends out butter to his family ; that 
there is an absolute reign of terror in Belgium, 
sudden and arbitrary arrests, etc. I think the Ger- 
mans v^ant to see all foreign diplomats out of Bu- 
charest and Brussels and the charges against Voy- 
picka should be considered in that light. 

The greatest danger from submarine v^^ar is that 
unthinking persons in the U. S. may start a crusade 
against the President's policy, encourage the Ger- 
mans in the belief that we are divided and lead 
them to resume reckless acts in that belief. The 
continuance of a strong front is the very best way 
to keep the peace. 

Both Zimmermann and the Chancellor asked me 
about Bernstorfif, and returning good for evil, I 
said that he was O. K., on very good terms with 
the Government, well liked {sic) and that no one 
could do better ! 

A friend just returned from a week's visit in 
Hungary reports a great desire for peace. Per- 
sons who, a year ago, said that the President could 
have nothing td do with peace or negotiations, 
now say he is the only possible mediator. This 
comes from high government circles there. 

The historic crown of St. Stephen was much too 

124 



GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 

large for the King, but the little crown prince made 
a great hit with the populace. 

An Armenian woman came through here the 
other day. Her husband had been captured or 
killed and her tale of the treatment of the Arme- 
nians by the Turks was heartrending. 

Everything points to a coming crisis in the mat- 
ter of food, how serious it will be even the officials 
themselves do not know, as there is much con- 
cealed food and much smuggling over the various 
frontiers. 

In some parts of Germany, the country police or 
gendarmes are searching the farm houses thrice 
weekly. 

I have secured permission to visit and inspect 
the enslaved Belgians, have named as inspectors all 
members of our staff speaking French, but as yet 
have not received passes. 

Here Is a copy of a letter I have just received 
from a German: 

"The hypocrisy of the German Government is really 
disgusting !It is a well-known matter of fact, that by hints 
and approbation,, nay even by express orders of the Ger- 
man military authorities the troops In France and Bel- 
gium have been stimulated to give no quarter at all in the 
case of British adversaries, and that in Russia even whole 
regiments and brigades have been annihilated by grape- 
shot, although the poor wretches delivered themselves on 

125 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

mercy and raised their hands, to prove their submission. 
Both the Prussian and the Bavarian crown-prince have 
expressly ordered to make no prisoners, to spare ammuni- 
tion and to despatch the surviving by steel and bayonet. 
Has the order been forgotten, issued by the Kaiser in the 
beginning of the German China-Expedition, to deal with 
the Chinese like the Huns, to destroy and annihilate every 
human creature both men and women and even innocent 
children ! 

Quis Aulerit Gracchos de seditione quaerentes? 

Unus pro multis. 
P. S. 

The war would be decided and peace restored as soon 
as the U. S. A. Government would intervene in favour of 
humanity, liberty and civilisation. Down with the Prus- 
sian Tyranny!" 

The Germans will do nothing about Belgium. 
The deportations were a military measure, de- 
manded by Ludendorff, who constantly fears a 
British landing on the Belgian coast. 

A man who called on von Tirpitz recently was 
told by von Tirpitz that he, von Tirpitz, was watched" 
like a spy and all his letters opened. Von Tirpitz 
said that Hindenburg was the real ruler of Ger- 
many, that anything Bethmann said was censored 
by Hindenburg and that Hindenburg was now 
against reckless submarine war but that any sub- 
stantial defeats in the field would make him change 
his mind. Von Tirpitz said that the Kaiser was 
losing his mind and spent all his time praying, and 
learning Hebrew. 

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The food situation grows worse. Potato cards 
must now be presented in restaurants and hotels. 
I doubt if potatoes can last beyond April. There 
is food in Roumania but much will go to the troops ; 
Austrians and Turks: the railways are so used by 
troops, etc., that it is doubtful if any food from 
there can reach Germany for months. 

All apartment houses in Berlin are closed at 
nine, and lights in halls extinguished. Theatres 
close at ten and movies also. There is want of 
coal due to lack of transportation. 

The President's address to the Senate yesterday 
(Jan. 22, 1917) is splendid, I don't know yet how 
it will be taken here. If it is published it will give 
the German people something to consider. 

Postcards showing Zeppelins in the act of mur- 
dering the sleeping babies of an enemy city are 
distributed here with pride. 

All Germans of my acquaintance have impressed 
on me lately the renewed danger of submarine war- 
fare. The American correspondents are not al- 
lowed to send out the hate of America speeches and 
articles. Cyril Brown of the World says that last 
week fifty per cent of the matter he sent was cut 
out by censor here. 

The new U-boat campaign will go along the 
armed merchantman lines and an endeavour will be 
made to force or get us in some way to recognise 
that an armed merchantman is the same as a war- 

127 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

ship and, therefore, may be fired on without notice. 
It is the old story, but more subtly presented. 

Food situation more and more serious, riots late- 
ly in two markets in Berlin. 

Have not yet received passes to see the Belgians. 

Undoubtedly Ludendorff is the real dictator of 
Germany to-day. What he thinks about America 
may be judged from the circumstances before Col- 
onel Kuhn's recall. 

The nearer I get to the situation the more I con- 
sider tlie President's peace note an exceedingly 
wise move. It has made it very difficult for the ter- 
rorists here to start anything which will bring Ger- 
many into conflict with the U. S. 

The Chancellor, Zimmermann, Stumm, have all 
ridiculed the idea that Germany will go back on 
her "Sussex" pledges; hut if she does, then the 
peace note makes it easier for America to enter the 
war on the Allies' side with a clear conscience and 
the knowledge on the part of the people at home 
that the President did everything possible to keep 
us out of the mess. 



128 



CHAPTER IX 

THS KULTUR O^ KAISERDOM — THEJ GE^RMAN SOUIy 

'T^HE older I grow the more it seems to me that 
-■- all men are alike and that they have been 
alike at all periods of history, capable of the same 
development and differing only because of environ- 
ment. 

I do not believe, for example, that any mystery 
is concealed behind the faces of the peoples of the 
East. Once I asked Soughimoura, my colleague 
in Berlin, Ambassador of Japan, whether the Japa- 
nese were as much subject to nerves as western 
peoples. He answered in the affirmative but said 
they were taught from infancy to control their 
nerves. I asked him how, and he said the principle 
of the system was deep abdominal breathing with 
a slow release of the breath as soon as nervousness 
came on. Japanese wrestlers practised this, he 
added, and when a man took deep breaths it was 
almost impossible to throw him. 

Of course, social life and customs change with 
climate. But education is the most powerful fac- 
tor of all. The Aztecs of Mexico offered human 
sacrifices, but the letter of the Aztec mother to 
her daughter, giving advice and counsel, mentioned 
by Prescott in his history, might have been written 

129 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

by a New England mother to-day. Somewhere in 
the world is a savage eating human flesh, persuad- 
ed that in so doing he is acting in accordance with 
the tenets of his religion. 

These are the extremes. 

But the German or rather the Prussian, has been 
moulded into the extraordinary person that he is 
to-day by a slow process of education extending 
through several generations. At Marienburg, on 
the Baltic shore of Germany, stands the ancient 
castle of the Teutonic Knights recently restored 
by the German Kaiser. The Knights at one time 
conquered and occupied much of the territory that 
is now modern Prussia. A military religious order, 
they attracted adventurers from all lands and their 
descendants constitute many of the noble families 
of Prussia. It is this tradition of conquest for gain 
that still animates the ruling class of Prussia and 
therefore all Germany. 

Later through the middle ages and as the central 
power of the Emperor grew weaker and weaker, 
what is to-day Germany became a nest of dukedoms 
and principalities. Before the French Revolution 
these numbered hundreds. After the Thirty Years' 
War which ravaged Germany from 1615 to 1645 
extreme poverty was often conspicuous at these 
petty courts. War was an industry and the poor 
German peasants were frequently bartered as 
slaves to the war-god, as the Plessians were sold 
by their ruler to the British in our War of the 
Revolution. The Germans were then the mercen- 
aries of Europe, savages skilled in war, v/ithout 

130 



THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM 

mercy towards the towns unfortunate enough to be 
given to their pillage. There is no more horrible 
event in all history than that of the sack of Rome 
by the German mercenaries in the year 1527. Un- 
der General George von Frundsberg, who joined 
forces with the recreant constable Bourbon of 
France and the Spaniards, these lawless Germans 
invaded the fertile plains of Italy and took Rome 
by assault. 

The most awful outrages were perpetrated. Pre- 
lates were tortured after being paraded through 
the streets of the Eternal City, dressed in their 
sacred pontificals and mounted on donkeys. Altars 
were defiled, sacred images broken, vestments and 
services and works of art taken from the plundered 
churches and sacred relics insulted, broken and 
scattered. For nine months the orgy continued, 
the inhabitants being tortured by these German sol- 
diers in their effort to find hidden treasure. In 
fact conditions in Belgium to-day had their coun- 
terpart centuries ago in the treatment of Roman 
Catholic Priests and the people of Rome. 

The great change in the feeling of the country 
towards Prussia since the latter's conquest of the 
rest of Germany in 1866, is still exemplified by 
one quotation from Goethe. He said, *'The Prus- 
sian was born a brute and civilisation will make 
him ferocious." We all have seen how prophetic 
was this sentence. Skilled in chemistry, in science, 
well educated, made rich by manufacturing and 
foreign commerce, the Prussians of to-day have 
shown themselves far more bloody, far more cruel 

1^.1 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

than the German lansquenet of the middle ages 
who sold himself, his two handed sword, his mili- 
tary experience and his long lance to the highest 
bidder. 

Tacitus tells of how the ancient Germans when 
drawn up in battle array used to sing a sort of war 
song to terrify their enemies. 

It was Goethe incidentally who remarked "Amer- 
ika, du hast es besser." (America, you are better 
off.) The poet who died in 1832 foresaw, indeed, 
the coming power of the free democracy across the 
seas. 

It was interesting to note the psychological de- 
velopment of the Germans during the war. For 
the very short time while war hung in the balance 
there was a period almost of rejoicing, among the 
singing crowds in the streets — a universal release 
of tension after forty years' preparation for war. 

Next came the busy period of mobilisation and 
then, as the German armies swept through Belgium 
and France, stronghold and fortress falling before 
them, there came a period of intense exaltation, 
a period when the most reasonable Germans, the 
light of success and conquest in their eyes, declared 
German Kultur would now be imposed on the whole 
world. 

The battle of the Marne ended this period of 
rejoicing and, through the winter of 1914-1915, 
when it became apparent that Germany would not 
win by a sudden assault, the temper of the people 
began to change to an attitude of depression. 

It has been at all times the policy of the German 

132 



THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM 

autocracy to keep the people of Germany from 
amusing" themselves. I know of no class in Ger- 
many which really enjoys life. The Counts and 
Junkers have their country estates. Life on these 
estates, which are administered solely for profit, 
is not like country life in England or America. The 
houses are plain and, for the most part, without 
the conveniences of bath rooms and heating to 
which we are accustomed in America. Very few 
automobiles are owned in Germany. There are 
practically no small country houses or bungalows, 
although at a few of the sea places rich Jews have 
villas. 

The wealthy merchant takes his vacation in 
summer at Carlsbaa or Kissingen or in some other 
resort where his physical constitution, disorganised 
by over-eating and over-drinking, can be regulated 
somewhat. Many Germans take their families to 
Switzerland where the German of all ages with 
knapsack and Alpine stick is a familiar sight. 

Earnestness is the watchword. For should the 
people once get a taste of pleasure they might decide 
that the earth offered fairer possibilities than life 
in the barracks or the admiring contemplation of 
fat and complacent grand dukes and princes. 

Much of this sycophancy is due to the poverty 
of the educated classes. Salaries paid to officials 
are ridiculously small. The German workingmen 
both in wages and living are on a lower scale than 
those of other western nations with the possible 
exception of Russia, Italy and the Balkan States. 
The professional and business classes earn very 

^33 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

little. The reason for the superiority of the Ger- 
man in the chemical industry is because a chemist, 
a graduate of the university, can be hired for less 
than the salary of an American chauffeur. 

And this earnestness of life was insisted upon 
even to a greater degree by the autocracy with the 
opening of war. The playing of dance music 
brought a visit from the police. The theatres at 
first were closed but later opened. Only plays of 
a serious or patriotic nature were originally per- 
mitted. Dancing was tabooed, but in the winter 
of 1915-16 Reinhardt was allowed to produce a 
ballet of a severely classical nature and at the 
opera performances the ponderous ballet girls were 
permitted to cavort as usual. 

I saw no signs of any great religious revival, no 
greater attendance at the churches. Perhaps this 
was because I was in the Protestant part of Ger- 
many where the church is under the direct control 
of the government and where the people feel that 
in attending church they are only attending an 
extra drill, a drill where they will be told of the 
glories of the autocracy and the necessity of obedi- 
ence. In fact, religion may be said to have failed 
in Germany and many state-paid preachers 
launched sermons of hate from their state-owned 
pulpits. 

Always fond of the drama and opera I was a 
constant attendant at theatres in Berlin. The best 
known manager in Berlin is Reinhardt, who has 
under his control the Deutsches Theatre with its 
annex, the Kammerspiel and also the People's 

134 



THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM 

Theatre on the Biilow Platz. I made the acquaint- 
ance of Mr. Reinhardt and his charming wife who 
takes part in many of his productions. I dined with 
them in their picturesque house on the Kupfer 
Graben. In the Deutsches Theatre the great re- 
volving stage makes change of scene easy so that 
Reinhardt is enabled to present Shakespeare, a 
great favourite in Germany, in a most picturesque 
manner. He manages to lend even to the most 
solemn tragedy little touches that add greatly to 
the interest and keep the attention fixed. 

For instance in his production of ''Macbeth," 
when Lady Macbeth comes in, in the sleep-walking 
scene, rubbing her hands and saying, "What, will 
these hands ne'er be clean?" the actress taking this 
part in Berlin gave a very distinct and loud snore 
between every three or four words : thus most effec- 
tively reminding the audience that she was asleep. 

As the war continued the taste of the Germans 
turned to sombre, tragical and almost sinister plays. 
Only a death on the stage seemed to bring a ray 
of animation to the stolid bovine faces of the audi- 
ence. In my last winter in Berlin the hit of the sea- 
son was "Erdgeist," a play by Wedekind, whose 
"Spring's Awakening," given in New York in the 
spring of 1917, horrified and disgusted the most 
hardened Broadway theatregoers. The principal 
female role was played by a Servian actress, Maria 
Orska — very much on the type of Nazimova. In 
this play, presented to crowded audiences, only one 
of the four acts was without a death. 

Another favourite during war-time, played at 

135 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Reinhardt's theatre, was "Maria Magdalena." 
The characters were the father, mother, son and 
daughter of a German family in a small town and 
two young men in love with the daughter. In the 
first act the police arrest the son for theft, giving 
the mother such a shock that she dies of apoplexy 
on the stage. In the second act, the two lovers 
have a duel and one is killed. In the third act, the 
surviving lover commits suicide, and, in the fourth 
act, the daughter jumps down the well. The cur- 
tain descends leaving only the old man and the cat 
alive and the impression is given that if the curtain 
were ten seconds later either the cat would get the 
old man or the old man would get the cat ! 

The mysterious play of Peer Gynt was given in 
two theatres during each winter of the war. All 
of Ibsen's dramas played to crowded houses. Rein- 
hardt, during the last winter I was in Berlin, pro- 
duced Strindberg's ''Ghost Sonata," in quite a won- 
derful way. The play was horrible and grewsome 
enough, but as produced by him, it gave a strong 
man nightmare for days afterwards. 

The German soul, indeed, seems to turn not to- 
wards light and gay and graceful things, but to- 
wards bloodshed and grewsomeness, ghosts and 
mystery — effect doubtless of the long, dark, bitter 
nights and gray days that overshadow these north- 
ern lands. 

I think the only time I lost my temper in Ger- 
many was when a seemingly reasonable and polite 
gentleman from the Foreign Office sitting by my 
desk one day, in 191 6, remarked how splendid it 

136 



THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM 

was that Germany had nearly two million prison- 
ers of war and that these would go back to their 
homes imbued with an intense admiration of Ger- 
man Kultur, 

I said that I believed that the two million pris- 
oners of war who had been insulted and underfed 
and beaten and forced to work as slaves in fac- 
tories and mines and on farms would go back to 
their homes with such a hatred of all things Ger- 
man that it would not be safe for Germans to travel 
in countries from which these prisoners came, that 
other nations had their own Kultur with which they 
were perfectly satisfied and which they did not wish 
to change for any made-in-Germany brand ! 

Certain Germans have prated much of German 
"Kultur," have boasted of imposing this ''Kultur" 
on the world by force of arms. What is this Ger- 
man ''Kultur"? A certain efficiency of govern- 
ment obtained by keeping the majority of the peo- 
ple out of all voice in governmental affairs, a cer- 
tain low cost of manufactured products or of carry- 
ing charges in the shipping trades made possible 
by enslaving the workmen who toil long hours for 
small wages — a certain superiority in chemical pro- 
duction because trained chemists, willing to work 
at one semi-mechanical task, can be hired for less 
than a Fifth Avenue butler is paid in America, and 
a certain pre-eminence in military affairs reached 
by subjecting the mass of the people to the brutal, 
boorish, non-commissioned officers and the galling 
yoke of a militaristic system. 

Subtract the German Jews and in the lines of real 

137 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

culture there would be little of the real thing left 
in Germany. Gutman, Bleichroeder, von Swabach, 
Friedlander-Fuld, Rathenau, Simon, Warburg in 
finance; Borchardt and others in surgery, and al- 
most the whole medical profession; the Meyers, the 
Ehrlichs, Bamberger, Hugo Schiff, Newburger, 
Bertheim, Paul Jacobson, in chemistry and re- 
search; Mendelssohn, and others, in music; Har- 
den, Theodor Wolf, Georg Bernhard and Professor 
Stein in journalism. 

But why continue — about the only men not Jews 
prominent in the intellectual, artistic, financial, or 
commercial life of Germany are the pastors of the 
Lutheran Churches. And the Jews have won their 
way to the front in almost a generation. Still re- 
fused commissions in the standing army (except 
for about 114 since the war), still compelled to re- 
nounce their religion before being eligible for no- 
bility or a court function, still practically excluded 
from university professorships, considered socially 
inferior, the Jews of Germany until a few years ago 
lived under disabilities that had survived from the 
Middle Ages. They were not allowed to bear Chris- 
tian names. The marriages of Jews and Christians 
were forbidden. Jews could not own houses and 
lands. They were not permitted to engage in agri- 
culture and could not become members of the guilds 
or unions of handicraftsmen. When a Jew trav- 
elled he was compelled to pay a tax in each province 
through which he passed. Jews attending the fair 
at Frankfort on the Oder were compelled to pay a 
head tax, and were admitted to Leipzig and Dres- 

138 



THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM 

den on condition that they might be expelled at any 
time. Berlin Jews were compelled to buy annually 
a certain quantity of porcelain, derisively called 
"Jew's porcelain" from the Royal manufactory and 
to sell it abroad. When a Jew married he had to 
get permission and an annual impost was paid on 
each member of the family, while only one son could 
remain at home, and the others were forced to seek 
their fortune abroad. The Jews could worship in 
their own way, in some states, provided they used 
only two small rooms and made no noise. 

The reproach that the Jew is not a producer, but 
is a mere middleman, taking a profit as goods pass 
from hand to hand, is handed down from the time 
when Jews were forbidden by law to become pro- 
ducers and, therefore, were compelled to become 
traders and middlemen, barred from the guilds and 
from engaging in the cultivation of the soil. 

The German newspaper in size is much smaller 
than ours. If you take an ordinary American news- 
paper and fold it in half, the fold appearing hori- 
zontally across the middle of the page and then 
turn it so that the longer sides are upright, you 
get an idea of the size. There are no editorials in 
German newspapers, but articles, usually only one 
a day, on some political or scientific subject, one 
contributed by a professor or some one else sup- 
posedly not connected with the newspaper. 

The editor of the German newspaper in his de- 
sire to poison and colour the nevv^s to suit his own 
views does not rely upon an editorial, but inserts 

139 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

little paragraphs and sentences in the news columns. 
For instance, a note of President Wilson's might 
be printed and after a paragraph of that, a state- 
ment something like this will be inserted in paren- 
theses. ''This statement comes well from the old 
hyprocrite whose country has been supplying arms 
and ammunition to the enemies of Germany. The 
Editor." A few sentences more or a paragraph of 
the note and another interlineation of this kind. 
Small newspapers have a news service furnished 
free by the government, thus enabling the latter to 
colour the news to suit itself. It is characteristic 
of Germany and shows how void of amusement the 
life of an average citizen is and how the country 
is divided into castes, that there is no so-called so- 
ciety or personal news in the columns of the daily 
newspaper. 

You never see in a German newspaper accounts 
common even to our small town newspapers, of 
how Mrs. Snooks gave a tea or how Mrs. Jones, 
of Toledo, is visiting Mrs. Judge Bascom for 
Thanksgiving. If a prince or duke comes to a 
German town a simple statement is printed that he 
is staying at such and such a hotel. 

German newspapers, as a rule, are very pro- 
nounced in their views, either distinctly Conserva- 
tive or Liberal or Socialist or Roman Catholic. The 
Berliner Tageblatt is nearest our idea of a great 
independent, metropolitan, daily newspaper. Other 
newspapers represent a class and many of them 
are owned by particular interests such as the 

140 



THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM 

Krupps and other manufacturers or munition 
makers. 

There is little that is sensational in the Ger- 
man newspaper. I remember on one occasion that 
two women murderers were beheaded in accordance 
with German law. Imagine how such an occur- 
rence would have been ''played up" in the Ameri- 
can newspapers, with pictures, perhaps, of the ex- 
ecutioner and his sword, with articles from poets 
and women's organisations, with appeals for par- 
don and talk of brainstorms and the other hysteri- 
cal concomitants of murder trials in the United 
States. But in the German newspapers a little 
paragraph, not exceeding ten lines, simply related 
the fact that these two women, condemned for mur- 
dering such and such a person, had been executed 
in the strangely medieval manner — their heads cut 
off on the scaffold by a public executioner. 

The German newspapers in reporting police court 
and other judicial proceedings often omit names 
and it is possible in Berlin for a man to prosecute 
a blackmailer without having his own name in 
print. 

When a German victory was announced flags 
were displayed, but as the war progressed so many 
victories announced turned out to be nothing won- 
derful or decisive that little attention was paid to 
the vainglorious flaunting of German triumphs. 
Following an old custom ten or fifteen trumpeters 
climbed the tower of Rathhaus or City Hall and 
there quite characteristically blew to the four quar- 
ters of Heaven; but again as these official and 

141 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

brazen blowings were not always followed by the 
confirmation in fact, trumpetings were gradually 
discontinued. 

The Germans cleverly kept back the announce- 
ment of certain successes in order to offset re- 
verses. For instance, on a day when it was neces- 
sary to tell the people of a German retreat the 
newspapers would have great headlines across the 
front of the first page announcing the sinking of 
a British cruiser (sunk, perhaps, a month before) 
and then hidden in a corner would be a minimised 
announcement of a German defeat. 

To us in Germany there was at the time no bat- 
tle of the Marne. So gradually was the news of 
the retreat of the German forces broken to the peo- 
ple that to-day the masses do not realise that the 
fate of the world was settled at the Marne! 



142 



CHAPTER X 

TH^ LITTI^IS KAISERS 

AS the king idea seems inseparably connected 
with war there is no country in the world 
where kings and princes have been held in such 
great account as in the Central Empires. 

I believe there are only two Christian kings in 
the world — the kings of Italy and of Montenegro — 
who are not by blood related to some German or 
Austrian royalty. 

For remember that while we think of Germany 
as ruled by the Kaiser and while it is his will that 
is certainly imposed upon the whole of that terri- 
tory which does not exist politically or even geo- 
graphically but which we call Germany, there are 
houses of royalty in it almost as numerous as our 
big corporations. There are the three kings of 
Bavaria, Wiirtemburg and Saxony, grand dukes 
and dukes, and princes, all of them taking them- 
selves very seriously and all of them residing in 
their own domains; jealously keeping away from 
the Emperor's court and jealously guarding every 
remnant of rule which the constitution of the Ger- 
man Empire has bequeathed to them. 

Once I asked one of these princelings what his 
older brother, the reigning prince, did with his time 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

in the small provincial town which is the capital of 
the principality. The brother looked at me with 
real surprise in his eyes and answered, "Why he 
reigns !'* 

Before the constitution of the German Empire, 
many of these poverty-stricken little courts were 
centres of kindly amusement, even of intellectual 
life. 

The court of the Grand Duke Charles-Augustus, 
of Saxe- Weimar-Eisenach at Weimar where Goe- 
the resided and where he was entrusted with re- 
sponsible state duties, was renowned in Europe as 
a literary centre. 

Many of these princelings, however ridiculous 
their courts may have seemed, exercised despotic 
power. To-day the inhabitants of the two Meck- 
lenburg duchies are protected by neither constitu- 
tion nor bill of rights. The grand duke's power is 
absolute and he can behead at will any one of his 
subjects in the market-place or torture him to death 
in the dungeons of the castle and is responsible to 
God alone. 

Here is an example from history. George Louis, 
Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg-Celle, married his 
mistress, a Huguenot girl called Eleanore d'Ol- 
breuze. They had one daughter, Sophia Dorothea, 
who married the Elector of Hanover, who was also 
George I of England. Sophia Dorothea was sup- 
posed to have been involved in a love affair with a 
Swedish Count, Philip Konigsmarck. Konigs- 
marck was murdered by order of George I, and 
Sophia Dorothea incarcerated in Ahlden where she 

144 



THE LITTLE KAISERS 

died in 1726. Konigsmarck's sister went to Saxony 
to beg the aid of the Saxon King, Augustus the 
Strong. She failed to get news of her brother, but 
became one of the mistresses of Augustus the 
Strong and the mother of the celebrated Marshal 
Saxe. I say one of the "mistresses" of Augustus 
the Strong because he boasted that he was the fa- 
ther of 365 illegitimate children! 

The daughter of Sophia Dorothea was the 
mother of Frederick the Great and his brothers, 
and therefore, an ancestor of the present German 
Kaiser. Any one writing about her in a dis- 
paraging manner is subject to be imprisoned, under 
the decisions of the Imperial Supreme Court, for 
"lese-majeste" or injuring the person of the pres- 
ent monarch in daring to slander his ancestors. 
And, I suppose, any one referring to Augustus the 
Strong may be shut up in Dresden for insulting a 
predecessor of the present King. 

Every year the nobles of the Central Empires 
hold a convention at Frankfort, where the means 
are discussed by which their privileges may be pre- 
served. No newspaper prints an account of this 
Convention of the highest Caste. 

The German peasants, as far as I have seen, are 
not so much under the dominion of feudal tradi- 
tion as are the peasants in Austria and Hungary. 

I was shooting once with a Hungarian Count 
who stationed me in one corner of a field to await 
the partridges, which driven by the beaters were 
expected to fly over my head and as I stood waiting 
for the beaters to take up their positions two peas- 

145 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

ant girls walked past me. One of them, to my sur- 
prise, caught hold of my hand, which she kissed 
with true feudal devotion. As a guest of the Count 
I was presumably of the noble class and therefore 
entitled by custom and right to this mark of sub- 
jugation. And it became quite a task in walking 
through the halls of the castle to dodge the servants, 
all of whom seemed anxious to imprint on me the 
kiss of homage. 

Thackeray in the "Fitzboodle Confessions" gives 
a most amusing account of life in one of these small, 
sleepy, German courts and relates how he left Pum- 
pernickel hurriedly, by night, after the court ball 
where he had discovered not only that his German 
fiancee had eaten too much, but that she had a 
taste for bad oysters. 

All of these small kings and princes are jealous 
of the King of Prussia and of his position of Ger- 
man Emperor and show their jealousy by avoiding 
Berlin. 

In October, 1913, when in London on my way to 
Germany, I met the young Grand Duke of Meck- 
lenberg Strelitz in the Ritz Hotel where he was 
dining with an English earl and his beautiful wife. 
As I happened to have a box for the Gaiety Theatre, 
we all went there together and paid a visit to 
George Grossmith behind the scenes and talked 
vv^ith Emmy Wehlen, the Austrian actress, who was 
appearing in the comic opera then running. But 
in all the time that I was in Germany I never once 
saw or heard of the young Grand Duke who rules 

146 



THE LITTLE KAISERS 

the subjects of his duchy with autocratic rule with- 
out even the semblance of a constitution. 

Formerly our minister used to be accredited to 
some of these courts and, on inquiring informally 
through a friend, I learned that the American 
Minister is still accredited to Bavaria on the rec- 
ords of the Bavarian Foreign Office, no letters of 
recall ever having been presented. The fact that 
the American Ambassador is accredited to none of 
these courts is a distinct disadvantage because with- 
out letters of credence he does not come into contact 
with any of the twenty- four rulers of Germany who 
control the Bundesrat in which their representa- 
tives sit, voting as they are told by the kings, grand 
dukes and princes. A number of these kings and 
princelings, combining in the Bundesrat, can out- 
vote the powerful king of Prussia. But they don't 
dare! 



147 



CHAPTER XI 

royalty's RKCRE^TION 

T HAD a shooting estate about twenty miles from 
Berlin, one that I could reach by automobile in 
forty-five minutes from the door of the Embassy. 
Because of the strict German game laws I had bet- 
ter shooting there than within two hundred miles 
of large cities in America. 

There seemed to be something to shoot there al- 
most every day of the year. On the sixteenth of 
May the season opened for male roe — a very small 
deer. About the first of August the ducks, which 
breed in northern Germany, can be shot. These 
were mallards and there were about two thousand 
or more on a lake on my preserve. We usually 
shot them by digging blinds in the oat fields, shoot- 
ing them after sunset as they flew from the lake 
to feed in the newly harvested grain. The season 
for Hungarian partridge opened on August 20th. 
These were shot over dogs in the stubble and in 
the potato fields. After a few weeks partridges 
became very wild and we then shot them with a 
kite. When we had put up a covey out of range 
and marked where they went down in a potato 
patch or field, perhaps of lucern or clover, a small 
boy would fly a kite made in the form of a hawk 

148 



ROYALTY'S RECREATION 

over the field. This kept the partridges from fly- 
ing and they would lie while the dogs pointed until 
we put them up. 

By October ist pheasants could be shot; English 
pheasants become wild. These roosted in the trees 
at night and so escaped the plentiful foxes. Later 
on came shooting at long ranges, after they had 
collected in bands, of the female roedeer and also 
the hare shooting. Rabbits were shot at all times, 
and in November and December and January on 
foggy days it was not difficult to get a wild goose. 

The hares were shot in cold weather, after the 
snow was on the ground, by walking in line of ten 
or fifteen beaters with two or three guns at inter- 
vals along the line and later, when the hares were 
very wild and the weather very cold, by what is 
called by the Germans "kessel-jagd" or kettle-hunt. 
For this hunt the head keeper would collect a num- 
ber of beaters, as many as a hundred, from the 
neighboring towns and villages, mostly small boys 
and old men. On the great, flat plain the keeper 
would send out his beaters to the right and the left, 
walking in a straight line at about twenty-yard in- 
tervals. After each side had gone perhaps half a 
mile they would then turn at right angles, walk a 
mile, and then turn at right angles until the two 
lines met, so that perhaps a square mile of terri- 
tory would be enclosed by the beaters with the ten 
to fifteen men with guns at intervals in the line. 
When the square had been formed the head keeper 
blew a blast on his bugle and all turned and walked 

149 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

slowly towards the centre and the hares were shot 
as they attempted to break through the line. 

On one day just before I left Germany, I and 
members of the Embassy shot more than two hun- 
dred hares on one of these hunts. The German 
hare is an enormous animal with dark meat, almost 
impossible to distinguish from venison. 

After these hare drives, besides, of course, pay- 
ing the beaters their regular wages, I used to hold 
a lottery, giving a number of these hares as prizes 
or distributing hares to the magnates of the vil- 
lage, such as the pastor, the school teacher, the 
policeman and the postmaster. 

When we were shooting in the summer and 
autumn the peasants were working in the fields 
and one had to be very careful in shooting roebuck 
with a high-powered rifle. It is customary to hunt 
roebuck on these flat plains from a carriage. In 
this way a bullet, travelling at a downward angle, 
if the buck is missed, strikes the ground within a 
short distance. If one were to shoot lying down, 
kneeling or standing, the danger to peasants in the 
fields would be very great. The pheasants were 
sometimes shot over dogs, but usually as the beaters 
drove small woods. A pheasant driven and flying 
high makes a difficult mark. One getting up before 
the dogs is almost too easy a shot. 

We shot the rabbits by using ferrets, little ani- 
mals like weasels wearing little muzzles and bells 
upon their necks. In the woods where the rabbits 
had their holes four or five ferrets would be put in 
the rabbits' holes and it was quite difficult to shoot 

150 



ROYALTY'S RECREATION 

rabbits as they came out like lightning, dodging 
among the trees. In the early spring the "birk- 
hahns" were shot, a variety of black and white 
grouse. There were some blinds or little huts of 
twigs erected near places where the ground was 
beaten hard and on these open, beaten spots early 
in the morning the "birkhahns" waltz, doing a pe- 
culiar backward and forward dance in some way 
connected with their marriage ceremonies. There 
were also on this estate numbers, at times, of a 
curious bird found only in Spain, Roumania, Asia 
Minor, and these plains of the Mark of Branden- 
burg, a large bustard called by the Germans 
"trappe." These birds were very shy and hard to 
approach. Although I had several shots at them 
with a rifle at four or five hundred yards I did not 
succeed in getting one. 

In talking with the Chancellor he almost always 
opened the conversation by asking if I had yet 
killed a "trappe." As a rule the German uses for 
shooting deer and roebuck a German Mauser mili- 
tary rifle, but with the barrel cut down and a sport- 
ing stock with pistol grip added. On this there is 
a powerful telescope. Many Germans carry a 
"ziel-stock," a long walking stick from the bottom 
of which a tripod can be protruded and near the 
top a sort of handle piece of metal about as big as 
a little finger. When the German sportsman has 
sighted a roebuck he plants his aiming stick in the 
ground, rests the rifle on the side projection, care- 
fully adjusts his telescope, sets the hair trigger on 
his rifle and finally touches the trigger. 

151 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

At the commencement of the war the Duke of 
Ratibor collected all these sporting rifles with tele- 
scopes and sent them to the front. These were of 
the same calibre as the military rifles and took the 
military cartridge, so they proved enormously use- 
ful for sniping purposes. 

Going one day to a proof establishment to try a 
gun I opened by mistake a door which led to a 
great room where thousands of German military 
rifles were being fitted with telescopes. These tele- 
scopes have crossed wires, like those in a surveyor's 
instrument, and it is only necessary in aiming to 
fix the centre of the crossed wires on the game and 
pull the trigger. A clever arrangement enables the 
wires to be elevated for distant shooting. 

So great is the discipline of the German people 
that game on these estates is seldom, if ever, 
touched by the peasants. There is no free shooting 
in Germany. The shooting rights of every inch of 
land are in possession of some one and the tens of 
thousands of game keepers constantly killing the 
crows, hawks, foxes and other birds and animals 
that destroy eggs and game make the game plenti- 
ful. The keeper has the right by law to shoot any 
stray dog or cat found a hundred yards from a 
village. I paid the head keeper a certain sum per 
month and in addition he received a premium called 
''shot money" for each bird or roebuck shot. He 
also received a premium for each fox or crow or 
hawk he destroyed, bringing, on the first of the 
month, the beaks and claws of the hawks, etc., to 
prove his claim. Foxes are very plentiful in Ger- 

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ROYALTY'S RECREATION 

many and in one winter on this estate, only twenty 
miles from Berlin, the keeper trapped or killed 
twelve foxes. 

The Emperor is very fond of fox shooting. 
Foxes are driven out of the forest past his shooting 
stand by beaters and one of the reasons why Prince 
Furstenberg- was such a favourite of the Emperor 
was that he provided him with splendid fox shoot- 
ing, although it is whispered that he bought foxes 
in boxes in all parts of Germany and had them 
turned loose for the Emperor's benefit. 

In the more thickly forested portions of Ger- 
many deer as well as roedeer are shot and in many 
districts wild boar. In Poland and in a few estates 
in Germany on the eastern border, moose, called 
elk (elch in German), are to be had. These, how- 
ever, have very poor horns. 

Talking to the keepers and beaters on this shoot- 
ing estate gave me a very good idea of the hard- 
ships suffered in rural Germany, of the way in 
which the people in the farming districts are kept 
down by the lords of the manor and by the govern- 
ment, and it was from this village and the neigh- 
bouring town that I got some idea of the number 
of men called to arms in Germany. 

By a custom dating from the devastating wars 
of the Middle Ages there are practically no farms 
in Germany, but inhabitants of the agricultural dis- 
tricts are collected in villages and the few farms 
have, characteristically, a military name. They 
are called *Vorwerk" or outposts. In the village 
on my estate there are almost exactly six hundred 

153 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

inhabitants, men, women and children, and of these 
at the time I left Germany one hundred and ten had 
been called to the Colours. In the neighbouring 
town of Mittenwalde, of almost three thousand in- 
habitants, over five hundred had joined the army. 
At the commencement of the war the population of 
the German Empire was about 72,000,000, or some- 
thing over, and applying these same proportions it 
will be seen what a vast army was created. 

In the industrial districts where men are re- 
quired for munition work perhaps not as great a 
proportion has been called. The name of the vil- 
lage on my estate was Gross Machnow, the road 
from Berlin to Dresden ran through it and only a 
few miles east was the shooting place of Wuster- 
hausen where the favourite shooting box of the 
father of Frederick the Great was and where he 
was accustomed to hold his so-called tobacco par- 
liament, when, with his cronies, over beer and long 
pipes, the affairs of the nation were discussed with 
great freedom. 

The horse races in Germany are excellent. 
There are several tracks about Berlin. The Hoppe- 
garten, devoted almost exclusively to flat racing; 
the Grunewald, the large popular track nearest to 
Berlin where both steeplechases and other races are 
held; and Karlshorst, devoted exclusively to steeple- 
chasing and hurdle racing. 

The jockey club of Berlin is the Union Club, 
which owns the Hoppegarten track. Its officers are 
men of the highest honour and in no country in 

154 



ROYALTY'S RECREATION 

the world are the races run more honestly, more "on 
the level," than in Germany. 

Nothing makes for mutual international under- 
standing more than sport. Even during the most 
bitter crises between Germany and America I felt 
that I could go absolutely alone to the crowded race 
tracks and, while I know the Germans differed em- 
phatically with the American views of the war, the 
gentlemen in charge of the races and the members 
of the Union Club treated me with the kindest con- 
sideration and the most graceful courtesy. 

I am sorry that I never attended any of the Court 
hunts which took place in the vicinity of Potsdam. 
A pack of hounds is kept there and boars hunted. 
The etiquette is very strict and no one, not present- 
ed at court, can appear at these hunts. As I did not 
have an opportunity to present my letters of cre- 
dence until a month or more after my arrival in 
Berlin in the autumn of 1913, the winter rains had 
set in before I was eligible for the hunts and in ad- 
dition I had not taken the precaution to order 
the necessary costumes. 

The first time that a man appears at one of these 
hunts he must wear a tall silk hat, a double- 
breasted red coat, with tails like a dress coat, white 
breeches and top boots. After he has once made his 
appearance in this costume he may, thereafter, 
substitute for it a red frock hunting coat, white 
breeches and top boots and a velvet hunting cap, 
the same shape as the caps worn by the jockies. 

155 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

There are no jumps on these hunts. When the 
boar has been brought to bay by the dogs, the right 
to despatch him with a long hunting knife is re- 
served for the most distinguished man present. If 
a royalty is present at one of these hunts he dis- 
tributes small sprigs of oak leaves to every one at 
the hunt, cherished ever after as valued souvenirs. 

When I first arrived at Berlin, having brought 
horses with me from America, I used to ride every 
morning in the Tiergarten. Because so many Ger- 
mans are in the army, riding is a very favourite 
sport and in peace times the Tiergarten is crowded 
with Berliners. Most of the riding was done be- 
tween seven and ten in the morning. The early 
rising is compensated for, however, by the siesta 
after lunch, a universal custom. 

Shooting is almost more of a ceremony than a 
sport. The letters exchanged between Emperor 
William and Czar Nicholas, lately discovered in 
the Winter Palace, show what a large part shoot- 
ing played in their correspondence. One or the 
other is continually wishing the other "Weidmanns- 
Heil," which is the German expression for "good 
luck" as applied to shooting. All royalties must 
ride and keep in practice, especially because of mili- 
tary service. Indeed, all the sports of the Kaiser 
and his people converge toward a common object — ^ 
military efficiency and war. 



156 



CHAPTER XII 

TH^ KTE^RNAL FE^MININ^ 

Tjp VEN the women, many of whom are honorary 
"*-^ colonels to regiments, must keep in trim for 
the great parade days of autumn and spring. 
Many of these female colonels appear in uniform, 
riding at the head of their regiments. They sit on 
side saddles, however, and wear skirts correspond- 
ing somewhat in colour with the uniform coat and 
helmet of the regiment of which they are the hon- 
orary proprietors. 

German female royalties are rather inclined to 
set an example of quietness in dress. They seldom 
wear the latest fashion and never follow the exag- 
gerated modes of Paris. Even their figures are of 
the old-fashioned variety — pinched at the waist. 
While in the Tiergarten in the morning I saw many 
good horses, but only one fashionably cut riding 
habit. Many of the others must have been at least 
twenty years old, as the sleeves were of the Leg of 
Mutton style, fashionable, I believe, about that 
number of years ago. 

Many German noblewomen shoot and are quite 
as good shots as their husbands. I was quite sur- 
prised once on a shooting party to meet an elderly 
princess whose grey hair was in short curls and 

157 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

who wore a coat and waistcoat like a man's. She 
shot with great skill and smoked long Havana 
cigars ! 

When German women get out of the country 
they very quickly imitate foreign fashions and ex- 
travagances of dress. The Czarina of Russia, for 
example, a German Princess, is very fond of 
fashions, and a friend of mine who had three audi- 
ences with her during the war tells me that on the 
occasion of his first audience she was dressed in 
black and received him in a room where yellow 
flowers were massed. On the second occasion she 
was in grey and the flowers were pink. At the 
third audience her dress was purple and the flowers 
were of lilac and white. 

There is one good thing about the king and aris- 
tocratic system. The position of women in the 
social scale is fixed by the husband's rank. There 
is, therefore, none of that striving, that vying with 
each other, which so often exhausts the nerves of 
the American woman and the purse of the husband. 
The Geiman women give their time and attention 
to the *'Four K's" that, in a German's eyes, should 
bound a woman's world, ''Kaiser, Kinder, Kirche, 
Kuche" (Emperor, children, church and kitchen). 

The successful business man of New York or 
Chicago or San Francisco is surprised to find how 
docile and domestic the German woman is — no 
foolish extravagance, but a real devotion to hus- 
band and home, a real mother to her many children. 
She matches that short epitaph of the Roman ma- 
tron — *'She spun wool ; she kept the house." 

iS8 



THE ETERNAL FEMININE 

When I came to Germany I found, on studying 
the language, that there was no word in German 
corresponding to "efficient." I soon learned that 
this is because everything done in Germany is done 
efficiently, and there is no need to differentiate one 
act from another in terms of efficiency. But the 
German man could not be as efficient as he un- 
doubtedly is, without the whole-hearted devotion of 
the German woman. 

German girls are given a good, strong, sound 
education. They learn languages, not smatterings 
of them. They are accomplished musicians. Do- 
mestic science they learn from their mothers. They 
are splendid swimmers, hockey players, riders and 
skaters. 

During our first winter in Berlin we spent many 
afternoons at the Ice Palace in the Lutherstrasse, 
an indoor ice rink much larger than the one in the 
Freidrichstrasse, the Admirals Palast, where the ice 
ballets are given and the graceful Charlotte used 
to appear. The skating club of the Lutherstrasse 
was under the patronage of the Crown Prince and 
was one of the very few meeting places of Berlin 
society. The women were taught to waltz by male 
instructors and the men by several young women 
— blonde skaters from East Prussia. I tried to im- 
prove my skating and spent many hours making 
painful ''Bogens" or circles under the efficient eyes 
of a little East Prussia instructress. Afternoon 
tea was served during the interval of skating and 
one afternoon a week was specially reserved for the 
Club members. 

159 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

One of my young secretaries used to go occa- 
sionally to Wannsee, near Berlin, to play hockey 
■with a German friend; as the young men were 
nearly all in the war, girls made up the majority 
of each team. My secretary reported that those 
German girls were as strong, as enduring and as 
skilful as the average young man. 

Girls of the working classes, instead of flirting 
or turkey trotting at night, make a practice of going 
to the Turnvereins, to exercise in the gymnasiums 
there. If the members of the German lower classes 
only had the opportunity to rise in life what would 
they not accomplish! So many of them are very 
ambitious, persistent, earnest and thrifty. 

Of course, female suffrage in Germany or any- 
thing approaching it is very distant. First of all, 
the men must win a real ballot for themselves in 
Prussia, a real representation in the Reichstag. In 
the Germany of to-day, a woman with feminist 
aspirations is looked on as the men of the official 
class look on a Social Democrat, something hardly 
to be endured. And this is in spite of the fact that 
the nations to the North, in Scandinavia, freed 
women even before America did. 

The most beautiful woman in Berlin society is 
Countess Oppersdorff — the mother of thirteen chil- 
dren. She is not German, but was born a Polish 
Princess Radziwill. 

The chief lady of the Imperial Court is Countess 
Brockdorff. She is rather stern in appearance and 
manner, and rumour has it that she was appoint- 
vCd to keep the good-natured, easy-going Empress 

i6o 



THE ETERNAL FEMININE 

to the strict line of German court etiquette, to see 
that the Empress, rather democratic in incHnation, 
did not stray away from the traditional rigidity of 
the Prussian royal house. 

Countess Brockdorff is a most able woman. I 
grew to have not only a great respect, but almost 
an affection for her. At court functions she usually 
wears a mantilla as a distinguished mark and sev- 
eral orders and decorations. We had three women 
friends from America with us in Berlin whom we 
presented at Court. All were married, but only 
the husband of one of them could leave his work 
and visit Germany. The two other husbands, in 
accordance with the good American custom, were 
at work in America. Countess Brockdorff spoke 
to the lady whose husband was with her, saying to 
her, "I am glad to see that your husband is with 
you," an implied rebuke to the other ladies and an 
exhibition of that failure to understand other na- 
tions so characteristic of highly placed Germans. 
With us, of course, a good-natured American hus- 
band, wedded as much to his business as to his wife, 
permits his wife to travel abroad without him and 
neither he nor she is reproved in America because 
of this. 

Among the other ladies attendant on the Em- 
press are Eraulein von Gersdorff, whose cousin is 
a lawyer practising in New York, and Countess 
Keller. There are other ladies and a number of 
maids of honour and all of them are overworked, 
acting as secretaries, answering letters and attend- 
ing various charitable and other functions, either 

i6i 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

with the Empress or representing- her. One of the 
charming maids of honour, Countess Bassewitz, 
was married during the war to Prince Oscar, the 
Kaiser's fifth son. This marriage was morganatic, 
that is, the lady does not take the name, rank and 
title of her husband. In this case another title was 
given her, that of Countess Ruppin, and her sons 
will be known as Counts Ruppin, but will not be 
Princes of Prussia. 

There is much misunderstanding in America as 
to these morganatic marriages. By the rules of 
many royal and princely houses, a member of the 
house cannot marry a woman not of equal rank 
and give her his name, titles and rank. But the 
marriage is in all other respects perfectly legal. 
The ceremony is performed in accordance with 
Prussian law, before a civil magistrate and also in 
a church, and should the husband attempt to marry 
again he would be guilty of bigamy. 

I gave away the bride at one of these morgan- 
atic marriages, when Prince Christian of Hesse 
married Miss Elizabeth Reid-Rogers, a daughter 
of Richard Reid Rogers, a lawyer of New York. 
Prince Christian has an extremely remote chance 
of ever coming to the throne of the Grand Duchy 
of Hesse, but nevertheless and because of the rules 
of the House of Hesse-Barchfeld, he cannot give 
his rank and title to a wife, not of equal birth. The 
head of the House, therefore, the Grand Duke of 
Hesse, conferred the title of Baroness Barchfeld 
in her own right on the bride, and her children will 
be known as Barons and Baronesses Barchfeld. 

162 



THE ETERNAL FEMININE 

When Prince Christian and his wife go out to 
dinner in Berlin, he is given his rank at the table 
as a member of a royal house, but his wife is treated 
on a parity with the wives of all officers holding 
commissions of equal grade with her husband in 
the army. As her husband is a Lieutenant, she 
ranks merely as a Lieutenant's wife. On the same 
day that Miss Rogers and Prince Christian were 
wedded, Miss Cecilia May of Baltimore married 
Lieutenant Vom Rath. I acted as one of Miss 
May's witnesses at the Standesamt, where the civil 
marriage was performed, while the religious mar- 
riage took place in our Embassy. Lieutenant Vom 
Rath is the son of one of the proprietors of the 
great dye works manufactories known as Lucius- 
Meister-Farbewerke at Hoehst, near Frankfurt 
a. M., where salvarsan and many other medicines 
used in America are manufactured, as well as dye- 
stuffs and chemicals. 

In my earlier book I described presentations at 
the Royal Prussian Court in Berlin, especially 
the great court called the ''ScWeppencour,'* be- 
cause of the long trains or Schleppe worn by 
the women. All the little kingdoms and prin- 
cipalities of the German Empire have somewhat 
the same ceremonies. In Dresden, the capital of 
Saxony, a peculiar custom is followed. The King 
and Queen sit at a table at one end of the room 
playing cards and the members of the court and 
distinguished strangers file into the room, pass by 
the card table in single file and drop deep cour- 
tesies and make bows to the seated royalties, who, 

163 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

as a rule, do not even take the trouble to glance 
at those engaged in this servile tribute to small 
royalty. I suppose that the excuse for this is that 
it is an old custom. But so is serfdom! 

There are in Germany many so-called mediatised 
families, so-called because at one time they pos- 
sessed royal rank and rights over small bits of terri- 
tory before Napoleon changed the map of Europe 
and wiped out so many small principalities. 

At the Congress of Vienna these families who 
lost their right of rule, in part compensation, were 
given the right to marry either royalties or com- 
moners ; so that the marriage of a Prince of Prussia 
with a daughter of one of these mediatised houses 
would not be morganatic. The girl would take the 
full rank of her husband and the children would 
inherit any rights, including the rights to the throne 
possessed by him. 

Thus the beautiful young Countess Platen, 
shortly before we left Berlin, was married to von 
Stumm, the very able Under Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs. While she became on her mar- 
riage Baroness von Stumm, nevertheless, if she 
had married the son of the Kaiser, she would have 
taken his rank and her children would have in- 
herited all rights and titles possessed by their 
father. This is because the Platens, although bear- 
ing only the title of Counts, are a mediatised family. 

It is noteworthy that in Berlin women of that 
blonde type with regular features, which we be- 
lieve is the German type, are very rare. This type 
is to be found perfected in Scandinavia, although 

164 



THE ETERNAL FEMININE 

a few specimens exist in Germany. Looking over 
a Berlin theatre I have often noticed the predomi- 
nance of brown and black hair. 

There is always some one higher up to whom' 
German women must curtsy. All women, what- 
ever their husband's rank, must curtsy to a Royal 
Prince. Unmarried girls curtsy to married women 
and kiss their hands. Men, on meeting women, al- 
ways kiss their hands. 

Berlin is certainly the gossip headquarters of the 
world. Some years ago the whole town was in- 
vaded by a mania for anonymous letter writing, 
and when the smoke had cleared away few were* 
left with unriddled reputations. 

It is the fashion of the present court, however, 
to be very puritanical. No such little affairs are go- 
ing on publicly, as have occurred in the annals of 
the Hohenzollern family. For even the old Em- 
peror William, grandfather of the present Kaiser, 
had numerous love affairs. The tree is still pointed 
out near the Tiergarten where he met Princess 
Radziwill every day. 

And the Chancellor's palace was once the home' 
of another royal "friend." 

The Foreign Office was at one time the home of 
the Italian dancer. La Barberini, the only womanf 
who ever for a time enslaved Frederick the Great. 
I discussed affairs of state with von Jagow and 
Zimmermann in the very room where she gave her 
supper parties. 



^65 



CHAPTER XIII 

HOME) UFE: and "brutality" O? THE) PEIOPLE) 

'T^HE apartments of Berlin are designed for out- 
■■' ward show for which the BerHners have a 
weakness. They have great reception and dining- 
rooms called "representation rooms," but very little 
comfort or space in the sleeping quarters. 

It is impossible to think of dropping in suddenly 
on a Berliner for a meal. The dinners are always 
for as many people as the rooms will hold and are 
served by a caterer. 

Only two very distinguished guests may be in- 
vited. The host and hostess sit opposite each other 
at the sides of the table, with the guests tapering 
off in rank to right and left of them, the ends of 
the tables being filled up with aides and secretaries. 
When a great man is invited his aide or secretary 
must be asked also. These come usually without 
their wives. 

After dinner men and women leave the table to- 
gether and smoke in the other rooms of the house, 
going from group to group. And, although per- 
haps ten kinds of wine are served during dinner, 
as soon as the guests leave the dining-room, serv- 
ants make their appearance with travs of glasses 

i66 



HOME LIFE— "BRUTALITY" OF THE PEOPLE 

of light and dark beer and continue to offer beer 
during the remainder of the evening. 

The Germans talk much of food and spend a 
greater part of their income on food than any other 
nation. They take much interest in table furnish- 
ings, china, etc., and invariably turn over the plates 
to see the marks on the under side. 

Whipped cream is an essential to many German 
dishes, and in the season a Berliner will commit 
any crime to obtain some plover's eggs. 

The weiss bier of Berlin, served in wide goblets, 
is rather going out of fashion. It often is drunk 
mixed with raspberry juice. 

The restaurants of Berlin are not gay, like those 
of Paris. There is, however, a rather rough night 
life created for foreign consumption. I did not 
take in any of these night restaurants and dancing 
cabarets, warned by the case of an Ambassador 
from who was reproved by von Jagow for vis- 
iting the "Palais de Danse." 

In peace time few automobiles are to be seen on 
the Berlin streets. There are many millionaires in 
the city, but the old habits of German thrift persist. 

The modern architecture of Germany is re- 
pulsive. The man who builds a new house seems 
to want to get something resembling as nearly as 
possible a family vault. Ihne, court architect and 
Imperial favourite, has produced, however, some 
beautiful buildings, notably the new library in 
Berlin. 

Munich pretends to be more of a centre of art 
and music than Berlin. Artists have their head- 

167 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

quarters there, but the disciples of the awful "art 
nouveau" and kindred "arts" have produced many 
horrors in striving for new effects. 

The opera in Munich is better than in Berlin. 
One of the Bavarian Princes plays a fiddle in the 
orchestra in the Royal Opera House. 

The Berlin hospitals are better than ours, except 
for the caste system which prevails even there, and 
there are first, second and third class wards. 

The underground road is built at about the same 
depth as the New York subway. There are two 
classes, second and third; there are no guards on 
the trains, only the motorman in the first car. The 
passengers open the side doors themselves and 
these are shut either by passengers or station 
guards. Accidents are rare, all showing the innate 
discipline of the people. The charge is by distance. 
You buy a ticket for five or eight stations and give 
up the ticket as you go out of the station. If you 
have travelled farther than the distance called for 
by your ticket you must make the additional pay- 
ment. This requires that each ticket be inspected 
separately when taken up. 

The tramways have different routes. These 
routes are shown by signs and by numbers dis- 
played on the car. Women motormen in the war 
period caused many accidents. 

For those Germans who cannot afford to ride or 
shoot, w'alking is the principal recreation. There 
are a few golf courses in the German Empire, 
mostly patronised by foreigners and American 
dentists. 

i68 



HOME LIFE— "BRUTALITY" OF THE PEOPLE 

Military training is always in view and the use 
of the knapsack on walking tours is universal, even 
school children carry their books to school in knap- 
sacks and so become accustomed, at an early age, 
to carry this part of the soldier's burden. 

Occasionally, in summer, bands of girls or boys 
are to be seen on walking tours. In addition to the 
usual knapsack, they carry guitars or mandolins. 
These young people are known as "Wander vogel" 
(wandering birds), and sing as they walk. But 
they don't sing very loud. They might break some 
regulation. 

Outside of the large cities and even in the cities 
vacant lots are occupied by "arbour colonies" 
(lauben colonic) — tiny little houses of wood erected 
by city workingmen and surrounded by little gar- 
dens of vegetables and flowers. Here the city 
workman spends Sunday and often the twilight 
hours and the night in summer time. Of course, 
these are possible only in a country where the v/ork- 
ingman is in a distinct social class and where he is 
compelled to be content with the amusements and 
occupations of that class alone. 

There is no baseball or substitute for it — the 
clerks get their diversion in a country excursion or 
at the free bath on the Wann or Muggel Lake. 

These "free baths," so-called, are stretches of 
sandy lake shore where the populace resort in hot 
weather, undressing with the indifference of ani- 
mals on the beach, men and women all mixed to- 
gether, the men wearing only little bathing trunks 
and the women scanty one-piece bathing suits. 

169 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

There is a bathing tent where two cents is charged 
for^the privilege of undressing, but most prefer the 
open beach. Few swim or go in the water, but the 
majority lie about the beach, often sleeping in af- 
fectionate embrace, all without exciting any com- 
ment or ridicule. 

The boy scout movement was taken up enthusi- 
astically in Germany with the cheerful support of 
the military caste, who look on the activity as a 
welcome adjunct to military training. The boys 
certainly are given a dose of real drill. On one 
occasion I saw a boy company at drill march 
straight into the Havel river, no command to halt 
having been given at the river bank ! 

The workingmen of Germany are more brutal 
than those of England, France and America, but 
this is because of the low wages they receive, and 
because they feel the weight of the caste system. 

In a speech in December, 191 7, I said that a 
revolution in Germany would come after the war 
and that a fellow Ambassador in Berlin had said 
to me that because of the great brutality of the 
workingmen in Germany this uprising would make 
the French Revolution look like a Methodist Sun- 
day School picnic. A newspaper reported me as 
saying this on my own authority and added that I 
had said the Germans were the most "bestial" peo- 
ple on earth. 

I only want to be responsible for what I actually 
say. I did not call the Germans "bestial," although 
unfortunately it is a fact that many officers of the 
army and others have been guilty of a brutality 

170 



HOME LIFE— "BRUTALITY" OF THE PEOPLE 

which has helped turn the face of the world from 
the whole German people. 

Not all the Germans are brutal. I received many- 
letters revealing evidence to the contrary. 

Here is the protest of a German soldier, an eye- 
witness of the slaughter of Russian soldiers in the 
Masurian lakes and swamps: 

"It was frightful, heart-rending, as these masses of 
human beings were driven to destruction. Above the 
terrible thunder of the cannon could be heard the heart- 
rending cries of the Russians : 'Oh, Prussians ! Oh, 
Prussians!' But there was no mercy. Our Captain had 
ordered: 'The whole lot must die; so rapid fire.' 

"As I have heard, five men and one officer on our side 
went mad from those heart-rending cries. But most of 
my comrades and the officers joked as the unarmed and 
helpless Russians shrieked for mercy when they were 
being suffocated in the swamps and shot down. The 
order was : 'Close up and at it harder !' 

"For days afterward those heart-rending yells fol- 
lowed me, and I dare not think of them or I shall go mad. 
There is no God, there is no morality and no ethics any 
more. There are no human beings any more, but only 
beasts. Down with militarism !" 

This was the experience of a Prussian soldier. 
At present wounded; Berlin, October 22, 1914. 

"If you are a truth-loving man, please receive these 
lines from a common Prussian soldier." 

Here is the testimony of another German soldier 
on the East Front: 

T7T 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

"Russian Poland, Dec. i8, 1914. 

*Tn the name of Christianity I send you these words. 
My conscience forces me as a Christian German soldier 
to inform you of these lines. 

"Wounded Russians are killed with the bayonet ac- 
cording to orders, and Russians who have surrendered 
are often shot down in masses according to orders in spite 
of their heart-rending prayers. 

"In the hope that you, as the representative of a Chris- 
tian State, will protest against this, I sign myself, 'A 
German Soldier and Christian.' 

"I would give my name and regiment, but these words 
could get me court-martialed for divulging military se- 
crets." 

The following letter is from a soldier on the 
Western Front: 

"To the American Government, Washington, U. S. A. : 
"Englishmen who have surrendered are shot down in 
small groups. With the French one is more considerate. 
I ask whether men let themselves be taken prisoner in 
order to be disarmed and shot down afterward? Is 
that chivalry in battle? 

"It is no longer a secret among the people; one hears 
everywhere that few prisoners are taken; they are shot 
down in small groups. They say naively, 'We don't want 
any unnecessary mouths to feed. Where there is no one 
to enter complaint, there is no judge.' Is there, then, no 
power in the world which can put an end to these mur- 
ders and rescue the victims? Where is Christianity? 
Where is right? Might is right. 

"A Soldier and Man Who Is No Barbarian." 

The first two letters refer to the battle of the Ma- 
surian Lakes, when the troops of Hindenburg, in 

172 



HOME LIFE— "BRUTALITY" OF THE PEOPLE 

checking the invading Russians, indulged in a need- 
less slaughter of prisoners. 

I heard in Berlin of many cases of insanity of 
both German officers and men who were driven in- 
sane by the scenes of slaughter at this battle and 
especially by the great cry of horror and despair 
uttered by the poor Russians as they were shot 
down in cold blood or driven to a living death in 
the lakes and marshes. 

An American newspaper said this could not be 
true, asking why did I not publish the letters in my 
first book. But my first book did not contain all I 
have to relate, and the letters in question were 
sent by me to the State Department early in the 
war, and were not at hand on the publication of my 
other series. 

But speaking of anonymous letters, shortly be- 
fore I left Germany I received a package contain- 
ing a necklace of diamonds and pearls with a letter, 
which, translated, reads as follows : 

"The enclosed jewelry was found in the fully destroyed 
house of Monsieur Guesnet of 36 Rue de Bassano, Paris. 
It is requested that this jewelry, which is his property, be 
returned to him." 

The package was addressed to the Embassy of 
the United States. I took it with me on leaving 
Germany and restored it to the family of the owner 
in Paris. The Guesnet country house lay within the 
German lines and the sending of the jewelry to me 
shows conscience somewhere in the German army. 

173 



CHAPTER XIV 

AIMS O]? THE AUTOCRACY 

T HAVE shown how the Kaiser is imbued with 
a desire of conquest, how, as he himself states, 
he dreamed a dream of world empire in which his 
mailed fist should be imposed upon all the countries 
of the earth. 

But the Kaiser alone could not have driven Ger- 
many into war. His system could. 

The head of one of the great banks of Germany 
told me in the first few weeks of the war that the 
Kaiser, when called upon at the last moment to 
sign the order for mobilisation by the General 
Staff, hesitated and did so only after the officers of 
the General Staff had threatened to break their 
swords over their knees. 

If this story is true, what a pity that the Kaiser 
did not allow the officers to break their swords! 
What would have happened? Would the military 
have seized the power and deposed the Kaiser, put- 
ting the Crown Prince in his place? I believe it 
might have happened had he refused to sign the 
order. The Kaiser, after leaving Kiel, attended a 
council at Potsdam where war was decided upon, 
and I really doubt whether at the last moment he 

174 



AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 

did not shrink before the awful responsibility or 
hesitate to sign the mobilisation order. 

The immediate cause of Germany's going to war 
was the feeling on the part of the autocracy that 
the people would not much longer bear the yoke of 
militarism. That this fear had justification was 
shown by the enormous vote of lack of confidence 
in the Reichstag after the Zabern affair. At all 
costs the autocracy must be preserved, and if in 
addition the world could be conquered, so much 
the better. 

With modern improvements on the outside the 
heart of the government of Germany is that of the 
Middle Ages. The nobles as a rule are poor, the 
returns from their landed estates small, and, in 
peace times, the army general, the Prussian noble, 
and the Prussian official is overshadowed in dis- 
play and expenditure by the rich merchant. 

Army officers, nobles and governing class felt 
this and believed that war would restore what they 
regarded as the natural equilibrium of the country, 
the officers, the officials and the nobles at the top 
and the merchant class back in its place below. 

With war, retired generals living on small pen- 
sions in dingy towns once more became personages, 
rushing about the country in automobiles attended 
by brilliant staffs and holding almost the power of 
life and death. His lands worked by prisoners 
at six cents a day, and their products sold at five 
times the original price with no new taxes on either 
land or incomes, the Prussian Junker is enjoying 
the war. 

175 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

And this autocracy can make no peace which is 
not a "German peace," which does not mean that 
the Emperor and the generals can ride through the 
Brandenburger Thor to celebrate the conclusion of 
what may be thought a victorious war. 

For the plain people of Germany, while they can 
make no revolution now, on returning to their homes 
maimed and broken after four years in the trenches, 
will revolt at last, if a peace has been concluded 
which does not spell success for Germany. They 
will say to their government, — to the autocracy, — 
*'We had no political power. We left everything 
in your hands. We had nothing to say either about 
the declaration of this war or its conduct. In re- 
turn for our submission you promised efficiency and 
you promised us more, the conquest of the world. 
You have failed and we are going to overthrow 
you." 

It is the knowledge of this that makes the Em- 
peror and the autocracy ready to take any chance, 
anxious to continue the war in the hope that some 
lucky stroke, either of arms or of propaganda, will 
turn the scale in their favour, because they know 
that any peace that is not a German peace will mean 
the end of autocracy and probably of the Hohen- 
zollerns. 

And all the while the people are told that the 
war is a defensive war, although the German 
armies fight far in enemy territory in France, in 
Russia, in Italy, in Serbia, and in Roumania. They 
always are told, too, that it is Germany who is de- 
sirous of making peace and that the Allies refuse. 

176 



AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 

Last summer (1917) when an interview I had 
with the Chancellor in which he named the peace 
terms of the autocracy was published, the inter- 
view was repudiated by the Chancellor, who stated 
that these terms were not his. I am sure that they 
are not his and were not his, but I am equally sure 
that they are the terms and were the terms of the 
autocracy of Prussia as stated by him. Shortly 
after this the newspapers confirmed part of these 
terms, telling of the talk in Germany of the guar- 
antees to be exacted in case Belgium was sur- 
rendered by the Germans, which guarantees 
amounted to the absolute control of that unfortu- 
nate country and "rectification of the frontiers" 
demanded by Germany on the Eastern Front. 

Outside of Germany the propagandist and the 
pacifist and other agents of the Central Empires 
have proclaimed that this war is not a war of con- 
quest or aggression. 

But the evidence is to the contrary. 

Kaiser and pastors, Reichstag members and gen- 
erals, orators and journalists, have all at different 
times during the war declared themselves in favour 
of conquest. 

And it is extraordinary as showing the master- 
ful manner in which the poor German people are 
led astray that most of the men making these dec- 
larations for annexation are able at the same time 
to cry that Germany is fighting a defensive war 
and is prevented from making peace only by the 
wicked Allies. 

The King of Bavaria, speaking early in 191 5 at 

177 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

a banquet, said, ''I rejoice because we can at last 
have a reckoning with our enemies and because at 
last we can obtain a direct outlet from the Rhine 
to the sea. Ten months have gone by. Much blood 
has been poured out. But it shall not be poured in 
vain, for the fruit of the war shall be a strene-then- 
ing of the German Empire and the extension of its 
boundaries, so far as this is necessary in order that 
we may be assured against future attacks." 

Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg, who is the 
gentleman who slapped his chest and cried out to 
me on one occasion that Germany would never for- 
get the export of arms and ammunition to her en- 
emies by America and that some day Germany 
would have her revenge, declared also in 191 5 that 
the war would give Germany not only a mighty 
African Colonial Empire but a sufficiency of strong- 
holds on earth for their navy, commerce, coaling 
and wireless stations. 

The Kaiser, himself, speaking in July, 191 5, in 
his call to the German people issued from the Great 
General Headquarters, said *'that Germany would 
fight until peace came, a peace which offered the 
necessary military, political and commercial guar- 
antees for the future." 

Vice-President Paasche of the Reichstag, in 
April at Kreuznach, said, "We are not allowed to 
speak about conditions of peace. But the wish 
must be given expression that lives in the heart of 
every German that we will not give up enemy land 
conquered with so much German blood." 

A sentiment also expressed in April, 19 15, by the 

178 



AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 

National Liberal Reichstag member, Wachhorst de 
Wente, was to this effect: **Our fatherland must 
be larger. We must not allow it to be taken from 
us. Otherwise we will have obtained nothing ex- 
cept victory. We desire also to have the reward of 
victory. We will not give back all." 

Von Heydebrandt, the Conservative Leader, the 
uncrowned King of Prussia, as he is called, de- 
manded as a condition of peace "a stronger and 
larger Germany." 

Naturally, the Conservative leaders are for con- 
quest and annexation. Numerous articles in the 
Centrist Cologne Volkzeitimg were published pro- 
testing against giving Belgium her independence 
again. In April, 1916, this newspaper approved 
the statement of Leader Spahn of the Centrum 
party that the war must not end without ''tangible 
results," and also the statement of Stresemann, an- 
other member of the Reichstag: "We demand and 
expect a larger Germany." In February, 1916, 
Germania, the Berlin organ of the Catholic party, 
demanded also a tangible prize of war as one of the 
conditions of peace. 

Countless examples can be given from speeches 
in the Reichstag and from leaders and newspapers 
of virtually all parties in Germany, showing this 
desire for conquest, showing that Germany will 
not be content to go back to the situation before the 
war. Even Maximilian Harden, who is respected 
all over the world because of his fearlessness and 
reason, has written since the war in favour of a 
greater Germany, thus: 

179 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

"We wage the war from the rock of conviction that 
Germany after its deeds has a right to demand broader 
room on the earth and greater possibiHties of action and 
these things we must attain." 

Dr. Spahn, to-day the leader of the Centrum 
party, answering in December, 191 5, Scheidemann, 
who had argued against annexation, and speaking 
in the name of 254 members of the Reichstag rep- 
resenting the citizens' parties said: 

"We wait in complete union, with calm determination, 
and let me add, with trust in God, the hour which makes 
possible peace negotiations, in which forever the mihtary, 
commercial, financial and political interests of Germany 
must, in all circumstances and by all means, be protected, 
including the widening of territories necessary to this 
end." 

Ludendorff is now perhaps the man of most 
weight and influence, barring no one, in all Ger- 
many. When only Chief of Staff of the East Army 
he wrote: "The Power of Middle Europe will be 
strengthened, that of the Great Russians pushed 
back towards the East, from whence it came, at a 
time not very distant." 

These quotations simply show that the great ma- 
jority of Germans — those outside the social demo- 
cratic party — of the Germans, indeed, who rule the 
country, conduct its Commerce, and officer its army 
and navy — all have been infected with a dangerous 
microbe of Pan-Germanism and of world-conquest. 

Every one who professes a knowledge of Ger- 
man life and character, every one who writes of 

180 



AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 

the origin of the war, talks of Treitschke, Nietzsche 
and Bernhardi. 

Nothing made the Germans angrier than to find 
in foreign newspapers that on this triumvirate was 
placed the burden of the responsibility for the war. 
And I agree with the complaining Germans. Bern- 
hardi, who, during the war, was given a command 
behind the fighting front at Posen, was not con- 
sidered a skilful general by the military or a great 
or even popular writer by the people. 

How many people in our country or in France 
or in England are influenced by the lectures or 
writings of one college professor? And yet, ac- 
cording to many out of Germany, Treitschke, the 
deaf professor of Heidelberg, is the one man who 
transmuted the soul of Germany and incited the 
Empire to a cruel war. 

In America you can find any brand of professor, 
from a professor in a Virginia College who recently 
boasted that he would not subscribe to American 
Liberty war bonds, but would send the money to 
the Socialist, pacifist candidate for Mayor of New 
York, to the Professor in the University of Chi-^ 
cago who based his claim to fame on the fact that 
he had never been kissed. What professor of his- 
tory has had any great political influence beyond 
his own college? 

And it is equally absurd to think of a Prussian 
Junker, sitting by the fire in the evening, deeply 
absorbed in the philosophy of Nietzsche. All Ger- 
mans, as a matter of fact, through pride of con- 
quest in 1864, 1866 and 1870 and great industrial 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

success, had come to believe themselves to be super- 
men delegated by Heaven to win the world. 
Treitschke and Nietzsche were simply affected in 
their writings by this universal poison of overween- 
ing vanity. They but reflected the fashion of the 
day in thinking; they did not lead the nation's 
thought. Nietzsche himself wrote in one of his let- 
ters shortly before his death which occurred in 1900, 
"Although I am in my forty-fifth year and have 
written fifteen books, I am alone in Germany. There 
has not been a single moderately respectful review 
of one of my books." 

I never found a German of the ruling class who 
had read anything written by Treitschke, Nietzsche 
or Bernhardi. 

Tannenberg had more readers and a greater fol- 
lowing, although he, of course, expresses only the 
aspirations of the Pan-Germans. But he presents 
concrete positions which any one can understand. 

For instance, the German merchant looking at 
Tannenberg's book and seeing the map of South 
America coloured with almost universal German 
domination, smiles and approves, for he thinks 
German trade will swallow that rich continent and 
clever laws and regulations will exclude the imports 
of all other nations. 

In some aspects Tannenberg foresaw what is 
happening to-day when he says, *'The Finns have 
been waiting a long time to detach themselves from 
the Great Russians, their hereditary enemies." 

But in the main, in his sketch of the war to which 
he looked forward, he failed to predict accurately 

182 



AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 

the attitude of the world. His predictions repre- 
sent many of the dead hopes of the Pan-Germans, 
those Germans who believe it is the right and duty 
of Germany to conquer all. 

Prophesying war between Germany on one side 
and France and Russia on the other, Tannenberg 
believed that more confusion and resistance to war 
than actually occurred would come in Bohemia and 
Poland following the order for mobilisation in the 
Slav parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He 
mistakenly wrote also that Japan would declare war 
on Russia, a belief shared by the torchlight paraders 
of Berlin in August, 1914. 

Tannenberg thought Italy would declare war on 
France. He was wrong in his confidence that 
France was decadent, wrong in believing that Eng- 
land and the United States would only talk but 
would not fight, yet right in his belief that revolution 
would break out in Russia. In fact, I think that for 
years after the Franco-Russian Alliance, Germany 
was preparing a Russian revolution to break out on 
whatever day the Russian troops were ordered to 
their colours. He says that France will be so thor- 
oughly defeated that the *'war ought not to leave 
her more than eyes to cry with." 

I am afraid that while many eyes will cry in 
France, through the breadth of Germany there will 
be but few homes where eyes will not weep over 
the casualties of war, for which cruel, crazy dream- 
ers of world empire, like Tannenberg, are largely 
responsible. 

For Tannenberg's dream, the dream of the autoc- 

183 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

racy and of the Pan-Germanists, is to give to Ger- 
many most of South America, a great part of 
Africa, of Asia, the great islands north of Aus- 
tralia, including those of the Dutch ; with Holland 
and Belgium part of the German Empire as well as 
the Baltic provinces, and a share of the French 
colonies to be divided with England. 

The share of the United States for standing by 
and agreeing to the robbery was to be, according to 
Tannenberg, a protectorate over Mexico and Cen- 
tral America. 

Mexicans who were offered Texas and New 
Mexico by Zimmermann should read this Pan- 
Germanistic book in which all of Mexico is gener- 
ously bestowed on us. 

And I wish that Tannenberg's book could be read 
by every public man in South America — that South 
America in which the Argentine, Chile, Paraguay, 
Uruguay, the southern parts of Brazil and Bolivia 
are, according to Tannenberg, to come under the 
protectorate of Germany. Latin-American publi- 
cists should inquire from the inhabitants of Bosnia 
and Herzegovina how long it is before a "protec- 
torate" is transmuted into a conquered country. 
Tannenberg does speak for a great party in Ger- 
many. The children's school books show German 
"colonies" in Southern Brazil. 

As Sainte Beuve said, there is a fashion in intel- 
lect. The German to-day is essentially practical, 
cold, cynical, and calculating. The poetry and the 
Christmas trees, the sentiment and sentimentality, 
remain like the architectural monuments of a van- 

184 



AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 

ished race, mere reminders of the kindlier Germany 
that once was, the Germany of our first impres- 
sions, the Gemany that many once loved. But that 
Germany has long since disappeared, buried be- 
neath the spiked helmets of Prussianism, and an- 
other intellect is in vogue. 

That older, kindlier Germany was the nation 
tempered and softened by the sufifering of the Na- 
poleonic wars. After the battle of Jena, where 
Napoleon rubbed the face of Prussia in the mud of 
defeat, there came on Germany that period of priva- 
tion which left its impress so deeply on the German 
as to make thrift his first characteristic. A spirit of 
lofty, self-sacrificing patriotism imbued the whole 
people. Young girls cut ofT their long golden hair 
to be sold for the Fatherland. Jewels were given 
by all who possessed them. "Gold gab ich fiir 
Eisen" (I gave gold for iron) became a saying 
based on the readiness with which the rich made 
sacrifices to the cause of country. And with this 
patriotism, and with this penury, came into every 
home a more intimate family life, a greater earnest- 
ness, a deeper religious sentiment, a turning to- 
wards the idealistic side of life; but all was changed 
by the successful wars of Prussia that gave Prussia 
the leadership, the right to rule Germany. Then, 
with the end of the Franco-Prussian war, came a 
period of material prosperity, the rush of the popu- 
lation to the cities, and the building of great manu- 
factories, of enormous shipping interests, of power- 
ful banking institutions, of trusts and combinations 
which marked the Germany of 19 14. 

185 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

The fashion in intellect had changed, and tbft 
grasping, successful Prussian of 1914 was far re- 
moved from the ruined, chastened Prussian of 1810. 

Nations, like individuals, change in character 
with the stress of life. From 1810, the period of a 
sorrowing Germany, to 19 14 is one hundred and 
four years. The same number of years subtracted 
from the year 1796, when our new Republic was 
firmly established, and when George Washington 
made his noble farewell address, brings us to 
1692, when nineteen persons were legally hanged, 
charged with witchcraft in Massachusetts, and 
when in that State Giles Cory perished under the 
awful torture, judicially applied, known as the 
''peine forte et dure." 

It is quite true that weak voices against annexa- 
tions have been heard. 

Dernburg and Professor Hans Delbriick (the 
latter not to be confused with the disgraced, pig- 
slaughtering, ex-Vice-Chancellor), in their petition 
against the annexation of Belgium, showed a most 
reasonable spirit, and signing this petition with 
them were many of the great men and great minds 
of Germany. But their movement was a failure in 
Germany itself. Their campaign of reason could 
make no headway against the "League of Six"— 
the six great iron and steel companies of the West, 
who, with their paid lansquenets of the press and 
hired accelerators of public opinion, clamour for 
annexation so that they may rivet the chains of 
their industrial monopoly on the whole continent 
of Europe. 

186 



AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 

The Conservatives and Junkers, on tfie other 
hand, favour annexations to the East ; especially do 
they eye greedily the Baltic provinces where great 
estates are in the hands of landowners of German 
blood. What a reinforcement to the conservative 
cause would these Junkers of the Baltic be and, in 
the Conservative view, if there are to be annexa- 
tions in the West which would increase the number 
of industrial subjects and, undoubtedly social demo- 
crats, there must be a balancing accession of agri- 
cultural interest on the Eastern.frontier. 

The only cloud in the serene blue sky of Junker 
hopes is the fact that annexations in Poland would 
add to the number of Roman Catholics and, there- 
fore, to the power of the Centrum or Roman Cath- 
olic party. Hence the desire to make of Poland an 
independent kingdom, but one controlled by the Cen- 
tral Empires. 

The Poles are more at ease, having been given 
more liberty, under Austrian than under Prussian 
rule, and hence the tendency is to put Poland under 
Austrian rule. The Prussians do not object to this 
because it does not matter whether Prussia controls 
Poland directly or through Prussia's control of 
Austria, now, alas, only too apparent. 

But the principal aim of the nobles and the landed 
aristocracy of Germany, followed by their host of 
office-holders and dependents, is to keep the "graft," 
to hold the offices, civil and military, filled so long 
by these old Prussian families. 

The von Lachnows, to imagine a typical Junker 
family, hold one thousand acres of land in Bran- 

187 



FACE TO FACE .WITH KAISERISM 

denburg. The head of th'e house, Baron von Lach- 
now, was Minister to Sweden. After having held 
as a young man a position of Secretary of Legation, 
he left the diplomatic service to fight with his old 
regiment, the Gleiwitz Hussars, through the 
Franco-Prussian War. He then returned to the 
diplomatic service in which he finally attained the 
rank of Minister to Sweden. He now lives on his 
estate of Lachnow, with a pension as ex-minister. 
On great occasions he appears at the Royal Palace, 
resplendent in uniform, wearing the Orders of the 
Red Eagle and Prussian Crown with the Cross of 
the Johannis Order. His total income from pensions 
and estate is about ten thousand dollars a year. 
The oldest son, Baron Karl Friederich, after serving 
in his father's regiment, resigned and entered the 
diplomatic service and is now second secretary of 
the legation in Buenos Aires. He married there the 
daughter of a rich cattle owner. The second son, 
Baron Johann, is now Police President of the city 
of Schelsau, after having been district attorney in 
an industrial district where he distinguishes him- 
self by his prosecution of the social democrats. He 
married the daughter of the rich manufacturing 
proprietor Schulz, who sells, wholesale, little stat- 
uettes on the Ritterstrasse in Berlin. Baron August 
is in the army, detailed to the General Staflf and with 
a great future before him. Baron Max is now out 
of a job. While on his vacation the colony, in which 
he was secretary to the Governor, was captured by 
the British, and so at the outbreak of the war he 
assumed his old uniform of First Lieutenant in the 

i88 




VIEWS OF A TYPICAL HOLSTEIN COUNTRY HOME 
OWNED BY A JUNKER COUNTRY NOBLEMAN 



AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 

Gleiwitz Hussars and was given command of the 
prison camp at Schluttenberg, where he has won 
distinction for his severity with British prisoners. 
Baron Ernst is in the navy. This is considered 
rather a come-down by the family, as the navy, 
unHke the army, is not aristocratic. He has great 
hopes of marrying the only daughter of Von Blitz, 
who owns a splendid estate in Silesia. One of the 
daughters, Hilda, is married to Count Wenharp, 
owner of a beautiful estate in Pomerania, and the 
other to Hochlst, who is judge of the law court in 
Holstein and who owns the Rittergut (or manor) 
of Klein Spassberg, near Kiel. 

The estate of Lachnow is perfectly flat ground. 
The road to Brandenburg runs through the estate 
and village, the houses of which front directly on 
the road. This road in the village is paved with 
rough cobblestones. The house of the von Lach- 
nows almost touches the road, from which it is 
separated by an old stone wall. One side is on a 
square, cobblestoned courtyard, formed by the 
great barns, stables and sheds which surround the 
other three sides of the square. The house and all 
the barns are built of rough stone. The house is 
built on the plan of a piece of Castile soap, walls 
and roof and nothing more. Inside there are a 
dining-room, two parlours and an office-den for the 
master, upstairs bedrooms, opening on a long hall ; 
no bathrooms, no conveniences, even the water is 
brought in by the maids from the well m the centre 
of the court. The furniture is old and plain. The 
family does not keep an automobile, but two horses 

189 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

draw a dog cart to the station and take the family 
on visits to the neighbouring aristocracy. The 
driver is the sexton of the village church on these 
occasions. On the two sides of the house away 
from the main road and the square of barns there 
is a park of about ten acres. Here are a few ever- 
greens and gravel paths and a pond where some 
enormous carp excite the wonder of the village 
children. 

Baroness Lachnow is renowned for her devotion 
to the four K's. No one has a better stock of house- 
hold linen, all made by her, her daughters and her 
maids, in the whole Mark. She superintends every 
household detail and holds the keys to closets and 
wine cellar. 

Of course, the family does not associate with 
the schoolmaster and the Lutheran minister of the 
village, but they speak very kindly to them and the 
Baron once interested himself in obtaining a long 
service decoration for the schoolmaster. 

The von Lachnows live on their estate the year 
round, except for two weeks in February when 
they go to Berlin to a cheap hotel and attend one 
of the court balls. The Baroness never spends 
more than three hundred and fifty dollars a year 
on her clothes, although when in Sweden, as a Min- 
ister's wife she spent more. The Baron and 
Baroness sometimes condescend to dine with the 
father-in-law of their son, a manufactory proprie- 
tor, at his handsome apartment on the Kurfuersten- 
damm in Berlin, but Schultz, in spite of his four 
million marks and growing business, is made to feel 

190 



AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 

the wide gulf that separates him from the nobility. 

Baron Lachnow farms his own estate. His 
farm superintendent is von Treslow, once an officer 
in the Gleiwitz Hussars, who was compelled to re- 
sign because of a crippled arm, badly broken in a 
steeplechase. This taciturn, soured individual, on 
the outbreak of war, was given a place as com- 
mander of a village way station near the West 
Front, where his cruelties to the French inhabitants 
will long be remembered. 

Food is very simple. The family drink beer ex- 
cept on great occasions, but the Baron drinks Mo- 
selle at the midday meal and a red wine in the eve- 
ning. The recreation is shooting and visits to the 
neighbours. 

Such a visit is a great event, arranged by letter 
beforehand. The von Lachnows drive to visit the 
von Seltows eighteen miles away. They arrive in 
time for lunch, when much wine is drunk. After 
this the women gossip over their fancy work and 
the men visit the stable, discuss crop prices and in- 
spect the host's collection of horse flesh. The fam- 
ily photographs are inspected and Count Revent- 
low's latest article abusing the Americans is dis- 
cussed and the belief suggested thai a democratic 
people without King or Kaiser or nobility cannot be 
organised for war. The Social Democrats are con- 
demned and the story gleefully told of how the son 
of von Seltow cut down a Social Democrat who 
was slow in getting out of his way. 

I can understand the feelings of the von Lach- 
nows, the imaginary, typical Prussian family of 

191 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

the ruling class which I have pictured for you. If 
Germany should be democratised, what place would 
be left for them? The offices of the government 
thrown open to all classes in fair elections, places in 
the army and navy and diplomacy open to competi- 
tion in great academies like West Point and An- 
napolis. Deprived of the aroma of power given 
now by diplomatic or military place and noble birth 
in the caste system, the sons and daughters could 
no longer make rich marriages with the sons and 
daughters of the rich business men and manufac- 
turers. No more would the civil offices of Prussia 
be open only to appointments among the noble or 
Junker class. 

I do not blame the von Lachnows because they 
fight tooth and nail for the retention of their old 
privileges — because they endeavour to hold the 
common people in a serfdom almost as. complete as 
that of the Dark Ages. The dawn of constitu- 
tional government will be their twilight, the twi- 
light of the Gods of militarism, of privilege, and 
of caste. Prussian autocracy made the war in a 
last desperate endeavour to bribe the people into 
continued submission. 

The only excuse for the existence of the Prus- 
sian ruling class to-day, as much out of place as 
chain armour or robber barons, is its supposed hon- 
esty and efficiency; but no class which has brought 
this war on the German people can be described as 
competent; no sane governing class would have 
plunged into disastrous war a country that by 
peaceful penetration, by thrift and manufacture, 

192 



AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 

and financial and commercial ability was in process 
of acquiring- much of the wealth of the world. 

The first aim of German autocracy is to keep its 
own political position at home. 

Second — To obtain as much of the territory of 
other nations, as great an influence in unconquered 
lands, as possible. 

Third — To make peace now, but only if that 
peace is a German peace, a peace which can be 
called and advertised and proclaimed as a German 
victory. 

More particularly, Germany now looks to the 
East. In the so-called Baltic provinces of Russia 
the lands to a great extent are owned by Russian 
subjects of German blood. The peasants are poor, 
servile, without education or property, an ideal field 
for the advance of autocracy. It is hoped to either 
annex these provinces boldly or to establish protec- 
torates, which, sooner or later, at an opportune 
moment, will fall into German hands — just as Aus- 
tria gained the consent of Europe to a protectorate 
over Bosnia and Herzegovina and then suddenly 
added them to the domains of the Hapsburgs. 

The German propagandists have long been work- 
ing on the people of that part of Russia known as 
the Ukraine. If the Ukraine can be made a sep- 
arate protectorate or a semi-independent state, 
some day it will be easily absorbed. The autocracy 
has the same hope about Lithuania, at one time 
semi-independent. There, too, the propagandists 
have worked on Lithuania — all these provinces, of 
course, differing slightly from the races surround- 

193 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

ing and all with a semi-independent history, as, for 
instance, Courland. 

But all these races should think twice before they 
accept a momentary independence, if that autonomy 
is to lead them under the Prussian yoke. Whether 
that yoke is easy to bear or not is best answered by 
the Danes, Alsatians, Poles and Lorrahiers who 
have been forcibly incorporated in the Kingdom of 
Prussia. 

But greatest prize of all is the commercial con- 
trol of Russia which the autocracy hopes to win for 
its merchant class. Time and again I was told in 
Germany that a separate peace with Russia was 
near and that the exploitation of Russia by the en- 
terprising German merchants, in a short time, 
would repay Germany for all the losses of the war. 

Would it not seem extraordinary if the language 
of business and commerce of the United States 
were French ? But to-day in Russia and for years 
back the language of commercial business inter- 
course has been German. A great beginning, a 
great foundation it is for the eventual control, not 
only of the business, but the political structure of 
Russia. If the Germans at war with Russia have 
been able to split, revolutionise and divide it and 
put their representatives in control, what will they 
not be able to accomplish when peace shall bring 
them full liberty to circulate freely in that rich but 
ignorant country. 

In the end, all classes in Russia will demand a 
strong government, and if no military dictator, no 
Russian Napoleon has taken in his hands the reins 

194 



AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 

of government, then the German Kaiser will stand 
by ready to whisper to the torn people of Russia, 
as Napoleon III did to the French, *My Empire is 
Peace!" 

But even if Germany evacuates France and re- 
stores the complete independence of Belgium, even 
if no territories are gained to the East, or protec- 
torates or independent states carved from the body 
of Russia to be a later prey of Germany, Germany 
will have won — if from Bremen to Bagdad Ger- 
man influence or actual German rule is predomi- 
nant in Middle Europe, the Great Central State, 
where the cotton of Mesopotamia, and the coal and 
iron of Westphalia, the copper of Servia, the oil 
and grain of Roumania all will contribute to the 
manufacturer of Germany, who, in turn, will sell 
his goods in that vast territory. And best of all in 
autocratic view, the man power of the Central Em- 
pires will be so increased that at a propitious mo- 
ment, in a characteristic sudden assault, the armies 
of the Central Empires will invade and conquer Pal- 
estine, Egypt and India, and take what they will in 
Africa and Asia, while British, Japanese, and 
American and French navies impotently rage in 
useless control of the high seas. 



195 



CHAPTER XV 

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY — THEi KAISEIr's VASSAL STAT^ 

T7EW people in America perhaps realise how 
-■■ completely Austria-Hungary is under the 
domination of Germany and Kaiserism. There are 
those who think that the hand of the Vienna Gov- 
ernment was forced by Berlin when the ultimatum 
to Serbia was answered so reasonably by the little 
country to the south, but there can be no doubt 
that Austria has been ever since under the yoke 
of the German General Staff. 

And because the first break, the first glimpse 
of reasonable peace will in turn be forced on Ger- 
many by sorely tried Austria-Hungary, bent by war 
and bowed by debt, it is well to study a little the 
races and assess the influences of that unfortunate 
land. 

My wife's sister married a Hungarian Count, a 
member of the Hungarian House of Lords, and I 
have met many of the political leaders and mag- 
nates of that country on my trips there. 

The Germans of Austria are handsomer, more 
attractive but far less efficient than their bloody 
brethren from the cold, wind-swept plains of Prus- 
sia. They have acquired a slight touch of the Ori- 
ental and something of the mafiana (to-morrow) 

196 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY— KAISER'S VASSAL STATE 

of the Spaniards, a heritage, perhaps, of the days 
when Spain and .' ustria were so closely connected 
by Hapsburg rule. 

In the presence of an Austrian one feels his 
charm instead of the aggressive personality which 
is Prussian. Undoubtedly the Prussians counted 
on the good nature of the southern Germans, Hun- 
garians, Poles and Slavs in their insidious cam- 
paign to make these peoples, practically, if not in 
name, subject and tributary to Prussian rule. The 
Prussian propagandist has brought them face to 
face with a new Kaiserism. 

Shortly after the war a great number of Aus- 
trian professors of German blood issued a mani- 
festo demanding closer union with Germany — a 
prelude to the plots being hatched in Berlin against 
Hapsburg rule. 

The Court of Austria is quite different from that 
of Berlin; no modern ideas during the reign of 
Francis Joseph disturbed his medieval outlook. 

The beautiful Empress of Austria, who was as- 
sassinated by an anarchist in Switzerland, was 
probably insane. At any rate, for many years she 
lived apart from the Emperor, devoted to hunting 
and horses, going often as far as Ireland for her 
favourite sport and seldom appearing in Vienna. 
Francis Joseph, however, was consoled by an ex- 
actress, Frau Kathie Schratt, whom he visited daily 
and who occupied a position in Vienna almost as 
powerful as that of the mistresses of Louis XIV. 
Even in this very war when Frau Schratt estab- 
lished a hospital, she was photographed in the cen- 

197 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

tre of a group of women all occupied at this hos- 
pital and all holding the highest rank at the Aus- 
trian Court. The instant the old Emperor died, 
however, her power, influence and prestige disap- 
peared and I imagine that her titled and high born 
helpers were not long in deserting the hospital 
wards over which she had presided. 

That extraordinary Empire known as the Aus- 
trian Hungarian Dual Monarchy is less an Empire 
or a Kingdom or a State than the personal prop- 
erty of the Hapsburgs, whose hereditary talent for 
the acquisition of land is recorded on the map of 
Europe to-day. 

For centuries this royal family by treaty, by in- 
trigue, by war, purchase and marriage has been 
adding to its dominions, bringing under its per- 
sonal rule races who do not understand each other's 
language and who differ widely in customs, intel- 
lectual attainments and religion. 

The last acquisition of territory by the house of 
Hapsburg was in the year 1908, when the Austro- 
Hungarian Foreign Office boldly declared that Bos- 
nia and Herzegovina, placed under the protecto- 
rate of Austria-Hungary by the Treaty of Berlin 
in 1878, had been annexed to the Empire. The 
German Kaiser, standing by like a watching ac- 
complice while the burglary was in progress, threat- 
ened a general European war if any nations pro- 
tested. 

At a time when Prussia was a struggling state, 
Austria was the dominant power in Central Europe, 
but the one battle of Sadowa in 1866 settled for 

198 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY— KAISER'S VASSAL STATE 

ever the question of supremacy and the German 
States Hke Bavaria, Saxony, Wiirtemburg, etc., 
v^hich stood with Austria in that war, after re- 
ceiving a sound beating, ranged themselves on the 
side of the victor and, in 1870, joined in acclaiming 
the King of Prussia as the First German Emperor. 
That event settled the question of leadership in 
Central Europe and the dream of the Emperor 
Frederick who died about the time of the discovery 
of America. It was he who wrote the famous ana- 
gram on the vowels A, E, I, O. U. 

ustria st mperare rbi niverso 

A E I O U 

lies rdreich st esterreich nterthan 

"It is the fate of Austria to rule the world." 

In upper and lower Austria, so-called, there are 
about twelve million German Austrians. This ter- 
ritory is comparatively small and in it lies the city 
of Vienna. To the north and northeast lie Bohemia 
and Moravia, the country of the Tchechs or Szechs 
of Slavic blood. These people together number 
about six million. Prague is the capital of Bohe- 
mia, while in Moravia there is no great city. For 
centuries these peoples have been oppressed by the 
Austrians and in the Hussite rebellion the lands of 
Bohemia and Moravia were parcelled out to the 
Austrian nobles as w^ell as to the warlike adventur- 
ers who had joined the Austrian armies. 

With extraordinary obstinacy and patriotism 
these peoples cling to their old language and cus- 

199 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

toms. They have suffered much during this war 
and many tales are told of the shooting of all of 
the officers of Tchech regiments and the execution 
of every tenth man among the privates. 

It is a bit of poetic justice that the town of 
Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, where my friend 
Schwab is making so much war material to be used 
against the Central Powers, was founded by fugi- 
tives, who, rebelling against oppression, left Mora- 
via in search of liberty. 

North of the Carpathians lies Galicia, a Polish 
country, with Lemberg and Krakow as its capitals, 
and in the eastern part the Ruthenians, a race iden- 
tical with the Russians. These Ruthenians num- 
ber upwards of four million. 

It is a peculiar fact that in the curious Dual Mon- 
archy each race oppresses some other. The 
Ruthenians complain that they are oppressed by 
the Poles. The kingdom of Hungary lies to 
the east of Austria containing in its twenty mil- 
lion inhabitants about ten million Magyars, who 
are the dominant race and who in turn rule over a 
population of one and one-half million Ruthenians, 
two and one-half million Slovacks or Tchecks, 
three million Roumanians in the southeastern por- 
tion and about three million of the race now known 
as Jugo-Slavs. Of these Jugo-Slavs about two mil- 
lion are in that part of the Dual Monarchy under 
Austrian rule. These are the principal divisions 
of peoples. A Slavish race differing somewhat 
from the others is in the mountains to the east of 
Hungary where much fighting has taken place in 

2CO 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY— KAISER'S VASSAL STATE 

the last war known as Boukovina. In the south- 
eastern part of Hungary there is a German speak- 
ing country, known as Siebenburgen, where live 
the descendants of a German colony planted about 
two centuries ago. 

In Styria, in the mountainous districts of Austria 
to the west of Hungary, lives a race differing again 
from all the others, a mountain race supposed to be 
eaters of arsenic, a drug which they believe gives 
them a good complexion and stamina for moun- 
tain climbing. It is said that the bodies of these 
arsenic eaters remain undecomposed for a long 
time. And from this part of the world comes the 
curious superstition of the existence of human vam- 
pires. 

Slovenes, and Jews, Carinthians and inhabitants 
of Carniola, Serbs living like Moslems in Bosnia 
and Herzegovina and Italians in Trieste and the 
Trient— all make up the strange Austro-Hungarian 
monarchy. 

The union between Austria and Hungary is a 
personal union. The Emperor of Austria is King 
of Hungary. Only in four particulars are the 
Empire and the Kingdom united, namely, a joint 
administration of the army and navy, of diplomatic 
affairs and of such finances as are connected with 
joint expenditures for these purposes. 

In 1848 Hungary sought to break away from 
Austria. Kossuth heroically led the Hungarians 
against their Austrian masters, only to be beaten 
in the end because of the advent of the Russians, 
because one autocrat came to the aid of another. 

201 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Since then, by superior political talents and taste 
for intrigue, the Mag3^ars have not only held the 
Slovaks, Roumanians, etc., of their own country 
in political subjection, but have held much of the 
power in the Dual Monarchy. Their danger lies, 
however, in the predominance of German influence ; 
and some day the gay, easy-going, pleasant Hunga- 
rians may awake to find the Prussian Eitel Fritz 
seated on their throne and to learn what Prussian 
efficiency means when applied to those whom Ger- 
mans consider an inferior people. 

The twelve million Austrian Germans differ 
much in character from the Prussians. They are 
far more polite, far more agreeable, far more fond 
of amusement of all kinds. Indeed it is because of 
their pleasant personal characteristics that so many 
other nations have been content to remain under 
their rule. In no city of the world is the mass of 
the population as fond of pleasure as in Vienna. 
The best light operas come from that city. Vienna 
is the original home of the waltz. The "Blue Dan- 
ube" was composed on the shores of the river which 
flows through the Austrian capital. 

The dominant religion of the German Empire is 
Protestant, but in the Dual Monarchy it is Roman 
Catholic among the ruling Germans in Austria and 
Magyars in Hungary. 

In Austria and in Hungary most of the land is 
held in great estates. The peasants, as in Germany, 
sometimes own a few strips of land near their mis- 
erable villages. Possession of land is necessary to 
the standing of any noble. In Hungary, for exam- 

202 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY— KAISER'S VASSAL STATE 

pie, no noble sits in the house of Magnates or 
House of Lords unless he is the owner of a certain 
amount of land. 

Once across the Hungarian border, one sees the 
people taking a certain delight in refusing to un- 
derstand German. The names of the railway sta- 
tions are in Hungarian, and the uniforms of station 
officials, conductors, etc., differ from those in Aus- 
tria. Every effort is made by the population to 
emphasise the fact that Hungary is an independent 
kingdom, joined to Austria by personal rule alone. 

There is no melting pot in this part of the world. 
In the Lower House of the Hungarian parliament 
sit forty-three Croatian delegates, Croatia being 
that part of southwestern Hungary near the Adri- 
atic where the inhabitants are of Slav blood. By 
the Hungarian constitution those delegates have 
the right to speak in the Hungarian parliament in 
their own language and so from time to time a 
Croatian delegate arises in his place and delivers 
an ambitious harangue in Croatian, understood by 
no one except his fellow delegates who already 
know what he intends to talk about. This is only 
one example of how these peoples cling tenaciously 
to their language and national rights. 

It is possible to find in Hungary an Hungarian 
village, a German village, a Slav village and a Rou- 
manian village, all within a short distance of each 
other. Men from each of these villages after one 
month in the United States throw aside their na- 
tional costume and buy their clothes in the same 
Bowery shop, eat the same food and send their chil- 

203 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

dren to the same public school not only without pro- 
test, but with eagerness, whereas, in Hungary, not 
one of the inhabitants of these different villages 
would think of abandoning his national traits to 
learn the language of his German neighbours. 

Because commands are given in German in the 
armies of the Dual Monarchy all the male popula- 
tion, at least during the term of their military serv- 
ice, have been compelled to learn some German. 
But this they forget as soon as possible when they 
return from their period of military service. 

Many members of these races go to America and 
after working there a short time amass enough 
money to return to Austria-Hungary and purchase 
a small piece of land, — the ambition of every one 
born of the soil. 

One of the sons of Prince Lichtenstein told me 
that a friend who was running for the Hungarian 
Lower House in a district of Hungary largely in- 
habited by Slavs, spoke in Hungarian and, finding 
that his audience did not understand him, tried Ger- 
man. Finally, when matters had come to a stand- 
still, some one in the back of the room called out to 
him, asking if he spoke English. The candidate an- 
swered that he did. Whereupon the crowd told 
him to speak English which nearly all understood, 
and so the Hungarian, a candidate for parliament 
in Hungary, was forced, in order to be understood, 
to address his Hungarian electors in the language 
which they had learned in America. 

Franz Ferdinand, whose murder at Sarajevo was 
used by the Central Powers as a pretext for a war 

204 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY— KAISER'S VASSAL STAT^ 

determined on long before that time, was the heir to 
the throne of the late Francis Joseph. He was a 
romantic character. He visited frequently at the 
house of Archduchess Isabella, where Countess 
Chotek, of a Bohemian noble family, was a lady 
in waiting. Franz Ferdinand fell violently in love 
with the fair Bohemian, and in his desire to marry, 
enlisted the aid of Koloman Szell, Premier of Hun- 
gary. Szell told friends how Franz Ferdinand 
loved mystery and how, when he wanted to talk to 
him about marriage plans, instead of meeting some- 
where openly in Vienna, would arrange that Szell's 
train should stop in the open fields. Szell, on alight- 
ing and following directions, would find Franz Fer- 
dinand hiding behind a designated haystack. 

In a country where one royal family not only 
rules but owns the land, this attempt of Arch- 
duke Franz Ferdinand, then heir to the throne, 
and mad with love, to marry Countess Sophie Cho- 
tek, lady in waiting to Archduchess Isabella, caused 
a palace revolution. By the aid of Szell he at last 
succeeded in carrying out the marriage. But this 
was only after he and his wife had been required to 
submit to the most humiliating conditions and sub- 
scribe to a marriage contract or promise which was 
not only enacted thereafter as a statute in Hungary, 
but was formally put on record by the Austrian 
parliament. 

In this declaration, Franz Ferdinand declared 
it to be *'his firm and resolute resolve to marry 
Countess Sophie Chotek, that he had sought, in ac- 
cordance with the laws of the house, to obtain 

205 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

consent of the Imperial and Royal Apostolic Maj- 
esty, the Emperor and King, Francis Joseph I, glo- 
riously reigning, that the most serene, supreme head 
of the Arch house had deigned graciously to grant 
this permission and that Franz Ferdinand, however 
(describing himself as 'We'), recognise the house 
laws and declare them binding on Us particularly 
with regard to this marriage declaration, that 
our Marriage with Countess Chotek is not a mar- 
riage of equal birth, but a morganatic one and is 
to be considered as such for all time, and that in 
consequence neither our wife nor our issue or de- 
scendants is entitled to possess or claim those rights, 
titles, armorial bearings and privileges that belong 
to wives of equal birth and to children of arch- 
dukes or marriages of equal birth." Franz Fer- 
dinand, further, recognised that his children from 
this marriage would have no right to succeed to the 
throne in the kingdoms and lands of Austria nor, 
consequently, to the lands of the Hungarian Crown 
and that they were excluded from the order of 
succession. 

He further agreed and promised not only for 
himself but for his wife and children, that none of 
them would ever attempt to revoke this declaration. 

The old Emperor gave the wife of Franz Ferdi- 
nand the title of Princess Hohenberg and later 
raised her to the rank of duchess which, in the Cen- 
tral Empires, is a higher rank than that of prin- 
cess. She was also created a Serene Highness after 
the birth of her third child. Prince Ernest, in 1904. 
The first child, Princess Sophie, was born in 1901, 

206 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY— KAISER'S VASSAL STATE 

and the second, Prince Maximilian Charles, In 
1902. 

In spite of the rank thus granted to her, the 
Duchess of Hohenberg" was frequently slighted by 
Archdukes and Archduchesses of the House of 
Hapsburg, and when the present Emperor, the 
Archduke Charles Francis Joseph, married Prin- 
cess Zita of Bourbon-Parma, in 191 1, and this mar- 
riage was followed by the birth of a son, on Novem- 
ber 20, 1912, it was plain to Franz Ferdinand and 
his wife that the hostility of the old Emperor and 
the other members of the House of Hapsburg, aided 
by events, had succeeded in definitely excluding his 
children by Countess Sophie from the throne. 

These slights to his wife, so marked as to cause 
the publication of articles Inspired by himself in a 
newspaper devoted to his interests, and the birth of 
the heir to Carl, must have had a profound in- 
fluence on melancholy Franz Ferdinand. 

In all Europe there was one monarch clever 
enough to take advantage of the situation, to win 
Franz Ferdinand to him by the honours he paid to 
the Duchess of Hohenberg, — the German Emperor. 
Kaiser Wilhelm invited the pair to Potsdam and 
there both were made to feel that in one court, at 
least, the honours due to a wife of equal birth were 
paid to the ex-Countess Sophie. This Potsdam 
visit was in 1909, and I believe that, thereafter, the 
German Emperor and Franz Ferdinand met on 
other occasions. 

In the chapter on Emperor Wilhelm, I have stated 
the belief prevalent, even in Germany, that he in- 

207 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

tended as his first step towards his openly ex- 
pressed ambition for world dominion, to make him- 
self, on the death of Francis Joseph, Emperor of a 
Great Continental Empire in which the German 
Princes, his sons, should occupy the thrones of Hun- 
gary and Bohemia, the heir of the House of Aus- 
tria to rule as king or grand duke of Austria with 
possibly another German ruled kingdom touching 
the sea on the south. 

There are some who believe that when the Kai- 
ser, accompanied by von Tirpitz, visited Franz Fer- 
dinand at Konopisht in June, 1914, before the Kiel 
week, that a great conspiracy was entered into, in 
which it was arranged that a great Central Empire 
should be created with one of the sons of the Duch- 
ess of Hohenberg on the throne of Bohemia and 
the other provided for by some newly carved out 
kingdom made from Bosnia, or a portion of Ser- 
bia. And it may have been part of this plot that 
Eitel Fritz .and other sons of the Kaiser should be 
provided with thrones derived from Balkan ter- 
ritory. 

It will be remembered that as Franz Ferdinand 
and his wife fell under the assassin's bullet at Sara- 
jevo he called out: "Sophie, live for our chil- 
dren!" His devotion to his wife and to their chil- 
dren was extraordinary. He was continually spar- 
ing from his income so that on his death his sons 
would have a large sum of money, saved from the 
income of estates which they could not inherit. 

It is hard to believe that such a crime against 
the House of Hapsburg and against his own coun- 

208 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY— KAISER'S VASSAL STATE 

try was contemplated from the inside of royalty. 
But one event seems a confirmation of this theory. 
The dead Franz Ferdinand and his wife were bur- 
ied with such lack of honour, almost with such con- 
tempt, as to lead to the belief that the head of the 
House of Hapsburg, Emperor Francis Joseph him- 
self, without whose directions the Chamberlain, 
Count Montenuovo, would not have dared to act, 
discovered his heir in some act against the laws or 
fortunes of the Imperial House. 

For the funeral arrangements were such, that the 
Austrian and Hungarian aristocracy were moved to 
protest and as a result a belated order was issued 
directing that the troops of the Vienna Garrison 
should take part in the funeral ceremonies. 
About one hundred and fifty members of the lead- 
ing families of Hungary and Austria, without in- 
vitation, entered the funeral procession and fol- 
lowed the bodies to the railway station. The Lon- 
don Times correspondent called attention to this 
in cables to his newspaper at the time. 

Personally, I do not incline to this view, but I do 
believe that at Konopisht the war of 1914 was final- 
ly agreed on. Too many bits of evidence point to 
this and from something said to me at Kiel by a 
very high personage, before the assassinations at 
Sarajevo, I would have guessed that war was com- 
ing, had it not been impossible for me to believe that 
the world was to be plunged into war simply be- 
cause the Germaan people were restless under the 
rule of the autocracy. 

When the murders occurred at Sarajevo, all plans 

209 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

had been laid for war and the death of Franz Fer- 
dinand and the Duchess of Hohenberg merely gave 
another excuse to begin hostilities, after Austria, in 
the Council of Potsdam, had ratified all the ar- 
rangements made by the Emperor Wilhelm and 
Franz Ferdinand for the European war. Undoubt- 
edly the German Emperor used his influence with 
Franz Ferdinand and his wife in order to secure 
the former's aid in dragging Austria into the war, 
— a war begun to win the dominion of the world. 

How many in America have heard the name of 
Sophie Chotek? Yet the ambitions of this woman 
have done much to send to war the splendid youths 
who from all the ends of the earth gather in France 
to fight the fight of freedom. 

The clever German Emperor, playing upon her 
ambitions, induced the gloomy, hated Franz Fer- 
dinand to consent to the world war, and matters 
had gone so far that even the death of the Arch- 
duke Franz Ferdinand could not change the situa- 
tion nor turn the war party of Hungary and Aus- 
tria from their programme of blood. Eighty-four 
years of age, the old Francis Joseph could only 
ofiFer a weak defence to the martial insistence of 
Tisza, Premier of Hungary, and his able under- 
strapper, Forgotsch, who represented him in the 
Foreign Office at Vienna and who undoubtedly is 
the man who drafted the forty-eight hour ulti- 
matum to Servia. 

Berliners say that although the German Emperor 
gave the Duchess of Hohenberg all the honours 
due to the wife of an Austrian Archduke, heir to 

210 




MAIN STAIRWAY IN THE AMERICAN EMBASSY, BERLIN 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY— KAISER'S VASSAL STATE 

the throne of the Austrian Empire, he was 
careful not to bring her claims in direct conflict 
with any Prussian female Royalty and that on the 
first visit of Franz Ferdinand and his wife to Pots- 
dam, when the doors of the banquet room were 
thrown open, it was seen that the Kaiser had skil- 
fully placed all the guests at small tables, sitting 
at one with the Empress and his two guests. In 
this way he prevented a conflict of precedence and 
a possible scene with some Prussian royal princess. 

After one of these Potsdam visits, the Austrian 
government appropriated three hundred millions 
for new Skoda cannon and a great and unexpected 
increase of the navy was voted. In Austria itself 
it was seen that the German influence was dragging 
Austria-Hungary nearer and nearer to war. 

Ferdinand disliked the Hungarians and in turn 
was hated by them. If he had attained the throne 
of the Empire, as his children could not inherit, he 
would have endeavoured first to remove that ob- 
stacle, but if he had not succeeded he intended, as 
I have said, either to restore the kingdom of Bo- 
hemia and place his son, child of a Bohemian 
mother, on the newly created throne, or create, pos- 
sibly from conquered lands, another kingdom over 
which his heir could reign. 

The Magyars, the real Hungarian ruling race, 
are most skilful politicians. Their elections often 
are corrupt and all the tricks of the politician are 
in use in Hungary. 

In many families political talent seems heredi- 
tary. Tisza, the Premier of Hungary for the pe- 

211 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

riod for some time before the war, was the son of 
Tisza, who was Premier of Hungary about the year 
1875. Kossuth, son of the great Kossuth, has been 
active in politics. The father of Count Julius An- 
drassy was Premier about 1866 and favoured Ger- 
many, a policy which has been inherited by his son. 
One of the sons-in-law of Count Andrassy's wife. 
Marquis Pallavicini, came to America to act as 
best man when my wife's sister married Count 
Sigray. 

Andrassy came to Berlin during the war where 
I had several long talks with him. The one desire 
of Hungarians and Austrians alike is for peace, 
but surrounded by the armies of their German mas- 
ters, they have lost their independence of action, a 
bitter blow to the Magyars, who are not fond of 
the Germans. 

Count Stephen Tisza is an obstinate and able 
man, so many sided that it is related of him that he 
fought a duel, rode a steeplechase and made a great 
speech in Parliament, all in one day. 

Duelling is still a custom in Hungary, Austria 
and Germany. Once when I was in Hungary I took 
supper with a Count who had been second in a duel 
that day. One young Magnate was at a restaurant 
with an actress who wore a wide brimmed hat. An- 
other young Magnate of his acquaintance looked 
under the hat brim to see who the girl was. Result : 
a duel with sabres in a riding school. On this occa- 
sion, as the insult was not deadly, the use of sharp 
points was forbidden. The duel was stopped after 
one young Magnate received a cut on the forehead. 

212 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY— KAISER'S VASSAL STATE 

Stephen Tisza, on first taking office, was permit- 
ted by the old Emperor to obtain some apparent 
concessions for Hungary in order to make his pre- 
miership popular. It was arranged that Hungarian 
flags should be carried by Hungarian regiments, 
and that the officers of those regiments all should 
be Hungarians, but German was to be used as the 
military language and language of command even 
in the Hungarian regiments. 

As soon as Tisza became premier for the first 
time, Count Apponyi left the Liberal party and 
lately Count Julius Andrassy and his wife's sons- 
in-law, Count Karoli and Marquis Pallavicini, have 
been in violent opposition to Tisza, Pallavicini even 
fighting a duel with the Prime Minister. ! 

In a country where the majority of the inhabi- 
tants are Roman Catholics it is rather strange that 
Tisza and his father, both strong Protestants, 
should have attained the Premiership. The father 
of Count Stephen Tisza was even more obstinate 
than his son and greatly oppressed the Sfovaks and 
Roumanians within the borders of Hungary. 

A great responsibility lies at the door of Stephen 
Tisza. He allowed the Germans to use him in 
bringing on the world war. Doubtless he believed 
that Russia and the Powers would not move, that 
Austria-Hungary could seize or invade Serbia, 
while Germany terrorised the world as in 1908 
when Bosnia and Herzegovina were added to the 
Imperial dominions. But his failure to read the in- 
tentions of Russia and the other Powers is no ex- 
cuse for the calamity he brought on Hungary and 

213 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

the world, no excuse for the fact that his country 
is now overwhelmed by Kaiserism, its armies sur- 
rounded by the armies of Germany and its very 
independence threatened by the subtle influence and 
intrigues of the master intriguer of the world, — 
the German Kaiser. 

The franchise in Austria and in Hungary is like 
that given grudgingly to the Prussian, a mere ghost 
of suffrage. Autocracy rules. In Hungary, par- 
ticularly the Magyars, seeking to keep the political 
power in their hands, oppose a broadening of the 
franchise. Tisza has always been against any let- 
ting down of the bars, but when the young and bril- 
liant Count Esterhazy was made Premier, many 
looked for a change — a change which has, however, 
not yet come. 

The new Emperor Carl at first seemed to exhibit 
Liberal tendencies, but only for a moment. 

The events in Russia will have a grave effect in 
Austria-Hungary. More than a million Russians 
are prisoners in the Dual Monarchy, nearly a mil- 
lion of whose subjects are in Russia — and of these 
at least fifty thousand Czechs are fighting the Aus- 
trians and Germans in the ranks of the Roumanian 
army. Many more will refuse to leave Russia, but 
the coming back of one-half, after having witnessed 
the winning of liberty by the Russians, will influ- 
ence their countrymen in no small degree. Just as 
the French soldiers under Lafayette and Rocham- 
beau, after helping us gain our independence, re- 
turned from the free fields of America to a France 
where the burdens of the plain people were almost 

214 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY— KAISER'S VASSAL STATE 

unendurable and brought on the great French 
Revolution, the soldiers and prisoners who return 
to Prussia and to Austria-Hungary from the 
strange scenes of the Russian Revolution may, per- 
haps, leaven the inert slave masses of the Central 
Empires with a spirit of revolt for liberty. 

We should institute a great propaganda from the 
Italian front. For instance, I have been told by a 
man who has been on that front, a man who should 
know, that if a few American troops were sent 
there and signs erected stating "Come over and sur- 
render to the Americans, you will be taken to 
America well fed and paid a dollar per day when 
you volunteer to work," there would be a great rush 
of Austro-Hungarian troops eager to be taken pris- 
oner. 

The losses of Austria and Hungary have been 
enormous — men up to fifty-five have been drafted 
for the army, and the troops have often suffered 
defeat and the horrors of retreat at the hands of 
Russians, Serbians, and Italians. 

And all the time the iron hand of the German 
Kaiser grasps more and more of the power. Cheer- 
less prospect it is for the once gay Hungarians, the 
once happy Austrians, if to financial ruin and the 
killing of the flower of their youth is to be added 
the iron horror of Prussian domination. 

Our citizens of Austrian and especially of Hun- 
garian descent have been loyal to their new flag. 
And our great President with enlightened wisdom 
has eased the enemy alien regulations so as to fa- 
vour those born in the Dual Monarchy. America 

215 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

will never forget the loyalty, ungrudgingly given by 
those of her people born under the double eagle of 
the Hapsburgs. 

In my many visits to Hungary I grew to like and 
admire the Hungarians. Natural in manners, hos- 
pitable, polite, there is something in them that wins 
Americans. How different the open hospitality 
and friendliness in Budapest from the stern, cold 
formality of the Prussian capital! 

And with all friends of Hungary I hope that that 
country will soon throw off the trance of Prussian- 
ism, which has led the Dual Monarchy into a 
Dance of Death. 



2l6 



CHAPTER XVI 

GERMAN IN^I^UE^NCE ON THE^ NORTHE^RN NE^UTRALS 

TUST as I had the opportunity to study condi- 
*^ tions in Austria, so also I came in contact with 
the politics and diplomacy of the nations contigu- 
ous to Germany on the north. 

My grandfather, Benjamin F. Angel, was Ameri- 
can Minister to Sweden and Norway and on leav- 
ing received from the King the Order of St. Olaf. 
I have always taken a deep interest in Scandinavian 
affairs and it behooves the American people to re- 
gard closely what is happening nowadays in Nor- 
way, Sweden and Denmark. 

The outbreak of the European War in 1914 
served to bring the three northern nations close to- 
gether. Their Kings met in conference and a peace 
monument was erected on the boundary of Nor- 
way and Sweden as if to proclaim to the world that 
in spite of their recent separation, Norway and 
Sweden were sister countries. 

The people of these three countries are of the 
same blood and their languages are somewhat sim- 
ilar. Norwegian and Danish written are practi- 
cally the same. But there is quite a difference in 
pronunciation, Swedish is more like German and 
the pronunciation is not as difficult to learn as that 

217 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

of Norwegian and Danish. In Norway, there are 
older dialects, differing from Danish, and there has 
lately been a great movement in favour of a more 
national language. Many Norwegians regard the 
official Danish-Norwegian as a reminder of old sub- 
jection to Denmark and not at all fitted for the new 
independent Norwegian kingdom. The new na- 
tional language is called 'Xandsmaal." 

Sweden and Norway were both under one king 
from 1814 to 1905. In that year after a peace- 
ful secession, Prince Charles of Denmark, the son 
of the King of Denmark, was made the King of 
Norway, with the title of Haakon VII. Although 
both have kings, Denmark and Norway may be 
termed democratic countries, 

Copenhagen is lively since the war. The popu- 
lation of Denmark is only 2,500,000 and the whole 
country is only 14,829 square miles, which means 
an area about the size of Maryland. The coun- 
try was once larger but in 1864 Prussia went to 
war with Denmark and, finally, after the war with 
Austria in 1866, added to the Crown of Prussia 
the two Danish duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, 
As the city and port of Kiel were included in this 
territory annexed, it is easy to see why the Ger- 
mans engaged in this enterprise against Denmark. 

Denmark possesses the Faro Islands which lie 
far to north of Scotland, the great island of Ice- 
land and Greenland, relics of the times when the 
Viking ships brought such terror to the other coun- 
tries of Europe, that the Litany used to read: 
"From plague, pestilence and famine, from battle 

218 



GERIVIAN INFLUENCE ON THE NEUTRALS 

and murder, from sudden death and from the fury 
of the Northmen, good Lord deliver us." 

In Christiania we saw on our trip out two grace- 
ful Viking ships dug out of the clay shores of the 
coast in a state of fair preservation — one of them 
a Princess's ship on which it was easy to imag- 
ine some blonde princess of the North, her long 
braids of golden hair flying in the wind, urging on 
her Scandinavian oarsmen. 

The Danes are a sturdy race, the women more in- 
dependent than those of other countries. On the 
Frederick VIII, when we sailed from Denmark, 
September 28, 1916, for the United States, were 
two handsome girls, nineteen and twenty-one years 
of age, the daughters of the proprietor of the larg- 
est department store in Copenhagen. They were 
going to America to find employment in department 
stores in the different cities of the country, trav- 
elling entirely alone, and expected to return to 
Denmark after a year's experience in America with 
many new ideas of management and advertising 
for their father in Copenhagen. These girls were 
wonderfully educated, speaking in addition to Dan- 
ish, French, German and English with hardly a 
trace of accent. They lived a short distance out 
of Copenhagen and told me that every morning 
of the year they jumped into the sea at six-thirty 
in the morning, something that I should not care 
to do even in August in that cold northern land. 

Danish farmers learned early that in order to be 
prosperous they must practise intensive farming. 
I believe that Denmark, which even before the war 

219 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

enjoyed a high degree of prosperity, is the only 
country in the world where there are pig sties steam- 
heated and electric lighted while the farmer him- 
self does not have these luxuries. 

Our farmers have much to learn from the farm- 
ers of Denmark both in agricultural methods and 
in co-operation for the marketing of products. The 
reclamation of the Danish moors in Jutland has 
made surprising progress: it is in Jutland that a 
park has been preserved in its primeval state — 
the Danish-American Park, bought with money 
subscribed by Danish emigrants to America who 
prospered in their adopted land. 

Ever since the conquest of Denmark by Ger- 
many, there has been a deep hatred of all things 
German in Denmark on account of the treatment of 
those Danes, numbering between one hundred and 
two hundred thousand, who were living in Schles- 
w^ig and Holstein and were unfortunate enough to 
be turned over as property to the King of Prussia. 

I found the Danes agreeable people. Of the 
same race as the Germans, living like them in the 
dark North, this difference in behaviour is perhaps 
accounted for by the fact that the Danes are free, 
while the Germans are oppressed by the weight of 
an ever present autocracy. 

While the Danish people hate the Germans, offi- 
cially Denmark is careful to conceal this hate 
and even, apparently, to lean towards the German 
side, through fear of the German troops, which 
could easily overrun Denmark in thirty hours. 

Denmark, during the war, received oil cake from 

220 



GERMAN INFLUENCE ON THE NEUTRALS 

America, which was fed to cattle later sold to Ger- 
many. A great tonnage of fish has also been sent 
from Denmark to Germany while salt and potash 
have been imported. There is no question but that 
supplies of all kinds and in great quantities have 
found their way across the Danish border. 

And the Danes have prospered enormously since 
the war. Many people have become millionaires 
through the sale of food and other supplies to the 
Germans. A great deal of this food supply was 
sent in the form of canned meat, popularly known 
as goulash, and so to-day whenever an automobile 
passes on a Danish road, the small boys call out 
''goulash Baron," in the belief that the occupant 
is a new-made millionaire, enriched by trade with 
Germany. 

It is hard for us to realise how far north the 
Scandinavian countries lie. Christiania, the capi- 
tal of Norway and in its southern part, is in the 
same latitude as the south point of Greenland; and 
is it not difficult to imagine a modern city situated 
in Greenland? 

In Christiania it is not fairly daylight in Decem- 
ber until ten in the morning and dark early in the 
afternoon. The ample water power of Norway 
and Sweden furnishes electric light, a godsend in 
the short dreary winter days. 

Norway, in many respects, is one of the most ad- 
vanced countries in the world. Haying been ruled 
by Denmark for four hundred years, it was united 
to Sweden by the Treaty of Kiel, in 1814, with the 

221 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

approval of all the Powers, but against the inclina- 
tions of the Norwegians, who knew that they were 
given to Sweden to compensate that country for the 
loss of Finland, annexed to Russia. 

The ambitious Bernadotte arranged to govern 
Norway as king of that country, which was theo- 
retically to retain its independence and be united 
to Sweden only through the personal rule of the one 
monarch. 

At this time, the Norwegian Constitution pro- 
vided that no more personal privileges should be 
granted and since then the progress of Norway 
towards a real democracy has been rapid. It was 
the conflict over the right demanded by the Nor- 
wegians to establish a separate consular service 
that led to the dissolution of the union between 
Norway and Sweden in 1905, Norway voting for 
separation 368,211 to 184. 

There are now no nobles in Norway. Shortly 
after the union it was decided that those who had 
titles of nobility could hold them for life, but that 
their descendants could not inherit. 

Legislation for the protection of child workers, 
women, for insurance, etc., is of an advanced char- 
acter. For instance, no child under fourteen is per- 
mitted to work and no woman for six weeks after 
her confinement — women receiving full sick benefit 
pay during this period. Many of the railways are 
state owned. 

Norway is a land of little farms, the shipping and 
fishing industries occupy many men, but with the 
exception of the water power driven nitrate plants, 

222 



GERMAN INFLUENCE ON THE NEUTRALS 

on the coast, and the wood-pulp factories, there is 
little manufacturing. 

The mass of the people are with the Allies. Last 
winter, when it was proposed that a German con- 
cert troupe should play and sing in Christiania, the 
people threatened to burn the theatre if the per- 
formance was permitted. 

But, as in Sweden, the German propagandists 
are at work in Norway. Here again, unless we pre- 
sent our case, the people may be turned from the 
Allies. 

King Gustavus V, who occupies to-day the throne 
of Sweden, has a German wife. All the sympathies 
of the court, which copies the little courts of Ger- 
many, of the aristocracy and of the army are 
strongly with Germany. 

In Sweden, although the king has not much 
more power than the kings of Denmark and Nor- 
way, there is an aristocracy which inclines to imi- 
tate the manners of the German aristocracy and to 
seize, if possible, the privileges enjoyed by that 
body. The officers in the army in Sweden are de- 
voted to German ideals and, since the war, great 
bodies of them have been invited to Germany, 
where there has been much ado over them. 

The people, however, do not sympathise with 
Germany, knowing what the triumph of Germany 
means for them and how the court and the army 
and the aristocracy would be thereby encouraged to 
put the Swedish people in what the Germans would 
call "their place." 

The Swedes fear the domination of Germany 

223 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

and the domination of an aristocracy and army 
imbued with German ideas. They know that if 
Germany wins, the king business will take on a 
new lease of life. The ground was ripe for the Al- 
lies but the German propaganda, cleverly managed, 
spending money without stint, is gradually bringing 
the people to a point where, if the blockade is tight- 
ened, they may consent to Sweden's entering the 
war as an ally of the Central empires. 

In spite of the dislike of the people for the Ger- 
man cause, I think that the aristocracy and the 
court and the army would have forced Sweden into 
the war but for one thing. After some months of 
war, an arrangement was made whereby the so- 
called ''heavily wounded" were exchanged with 
prisoners between Russia and Germany. The Ger- 
man who was a prisoner of the Russians and had 
lost an arm or a leg, was sent home. These wound- 
ed prisoners on their way to their home countries, 
were compelled to travel the whole length of Swe- 
den and it was the sight of these poor stumps of 
humanity, as the trains stopped at the various sta- 
tions in Sweden, that kept the Swedish people out 
of war. Many pictures of them printed in the 
Swedish papers caused profound dismay in Swe- 
den and developed an inexpressible abhorrence of 
war. 

Since hostilities commenced, on the other hand, 
the Government, army and aristocracy of Sweden 
not only have been consistently opposed to the Al- 
lies, but of the utmost service to Germany. 

Swedish iron ore goes into German cannon and 

224 



GERMAN INFLUENCE ON THE NEUTRALS 

makes the best steel for aeroplane engines, and the 
imports into Sweden from America of foods and 
fats from America increased one thousand per cent 
almost immediately. These imports, with great 
quantities of copper and other supplies, found their 
way to Germany to the great profit incidentally of 
Swedish business men. For the plain people of Swe- 
den the cost of living increased without a corre- 
sponding increase in salaries and wages, so that the 
new prosperity was confined to the "goulash bar- 
ons." 

There is no question but that, just as in Argen- 
tina, the Swedish diplomatic pouch was in all coun- 
tries at the service of Germany, and that the or- 
ders to the German spies in Russia were sent by 
this means. In fact, it is believed German pris- 
oners in Russia found their way to Petrograd, there 
to participate in revolution and counter-revolution 
under orders sent through the Swedish officials. 

Smuggling is winked at and at Lullia on the 
Swedish coast near the head of the Gulf of Bothnia 
great quantities of rubber, block tin and oil arrive 
from Russian Uleaborg across the gulf. 

The French wanted to send a consul to Lullia, but 
their request was refused, doubtless because the 
Swedish authorities did not care to have any official 
foreigners see this traffic. 

Cleverest of all has been the work of the German 
financial agents. Warburg, the Hamburg banker, 
is attached to the German legation in Stock- 
holm. So skilfully has he managed his task, that 
Swedish firms and Swedish banks have been in- 

22S 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

duced to take German paper money, commercial 
paper and securities instead of gold, in return for 
copper, rubber, tin, food, fats, wool and supplies 
and in this way the Swedish business men, by the 
touch of self-interest, have been made to favour 
Germany. 

I confess that it is hard to bring about, but as 
each nation has the right to choose with whom its 
citizens shall do business, we must mercilessly 
blacklist those firms which assist Germany by ac- 
cepting, in lieu of the gold which would thus be 
drained from Germany, what amounts to the prom- 
ise of Germany to pay if successful in war. 

The Queen of Sweden, herself a German and an 
admirer of the German Emperor, has great influ- 
ence over her husband and the Court. 

At a time when she was visiting her family in 
Karlsruhe (for she is a Princess of Baden) a re- 
prisal attack made by Allied aeroplanes narrowly 
missed the royal palace and, consequently, the 
Queen. This has added to her prejudice against the 
Allies. The Crown Princess of Sweden was a 
Princess of Connaught, the sister of ''Princess 
Pat," but she does not dare take any stand against 
the anti-ally propaganda. 

I am sure that President Wilson appreciates the 
gravity of the situation and that means are being 
taken to place our position not only before the 
Swedish people but those of Swedish birth and de- 
scent in the United States whose influence should be 
brought to bear on their friends and relatives in 
the old country. 

226 



GERMAN INFLUENCE ON THE NEUTRALS 

The crew of every Swedish ship that lands here 
should be given our viewpoint; every Swede who 
returns to Sweden should go as a missionary — we 
must not permit Sweden, whose people are bound 
to us by ties of blood and friendship, by the hospi- 
tality which we offered to every Swedish immi- 
grant, to be ranged among our enemies by the Ger- 
man-admiring aristocrats of Sweden who by birth, 
training and education are opposed to democracy, 
who hope, if Germany wins, to gain as great an 
ascendancy in the government as the Prussian 
Junkers possess in Germany. 

The Finns who occupy that part of Russia near- 
est to Sweden have quite a sympathy for the 
Swedes, Finland having been at one time a part of 
Sweden. The races, however, are not the same. 
The Finns are a Mongolian race and certain simi- 
larities of language make it plain that the Finns and 
the Hungarians came from the same mysterious 
place of origin somewhere in the great mountains 
and highlands of Central Asia. 

Three languages, three influences, fight for mas- 
tery in Finland. The official Russian, the language 
of the government; Finnish, now receiving a new 
lease of life; and Swedish, the language of those 
who once conquered and held Finland, and who 
so imposed their civilisation on the more ignorant 
Finns, that to-day Swedish is the language of the 
more prosperous classes and of most of the busi- 
ness men. 

The women of Finland received the suffrage in 

227 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

1906, all voting who are over twenty-four and 
who have been for five years citizens of Finland. 
Many women thereafter were elected to the Fin- 
nish parliament. 

In two Scandinavian countries the women vote. 
Norway was the first sovereign state of Europe to 
give full citizenship rights to women. In 1913, all 
Norwegian women of twenty-five and citizens for 
five years were put on a voting equality with men, 
and the only positions under the national govern- 
ment for which women are not eligible are in the 
army and navy, the diplomatic and consular service 
and the Supreme Corirt. 

The Danish women received the full franchise 
in 191 5, but in aristocratic Sweden only the women 
paying income taxes have rights in the communal 
councils. 

In 1908, in Norway, a law was passed providing 
that women doing the work of men shall receive 
equal pay. 

Military service in all three northern nations is 
universal and compulsory. 

Possibly on a *'tip" from Berlin to a fellow 
autocrat, there occurred in February, 19 14, an ex- 
traordinary political event, arranged and ''accel- 
erated" by the Government, when thirty thousand 
farmers, meeting in Stockholm for the purpose, 
marched in procession to the Royal Castle to ad- 
dress the King and tell him that they were ready 
to bear any extra taxes imposed for the purpose of 
providing for national defence. 

Russia was the power particularly feared by 

228 



GERMAN INFLUENCE ON THE NEUTRALS 

Sweden who thought she desired to annex a part 
of Northern Sweden and Norway in order to get 
an outlet to the sea on the Norwegian coast. 

But recent events in Russia have ended this fear 
and the only question for the Swedes is the same, 
one with which the whole world is faced — Kaiser- 
ism or Democracy. 

Sven Hedin, the explorer, who was the leader in 
this movement for national defence, has appeared 
as a German propagandist so violent as to have be- 
come popular with the Germans. It is hard to 
understand why so intelligent a man should range 
himself on the side of autocracy. Now that the 
Russian danger, if danger there was, is past it is to 
be hoped that this celebrated man will be found in 
the ranks of those opposed to the autocracy which 
ordered the murders of many Swedish seamen. 

Norway, although it has often met the sub- 
marine of the Kaiser, which, defying all law, has 
sent to death so many Norwegian sailors and fish- 
ermen, suffers also from German propaganda and 
a certain self interest because of the forty-five 
million kronen sale of fish this last year to German 
buyers. 

Germany works, too, in Denmark with the Social- 
ists and deliveries of coal are used to obtain food 
from that country. 

The jolly, free, brave Scandinavians are natu- 
rally opposed to all that Pan-Germanism and Ger- 
man rule means. It is necessary for us, especially 
our citizens of Scandinavian descent, not to lose 
this initial advantage. 

229 



CHAPTER XVII 

SWITZKRI/AND — ANOTHER KIND OF NEUTRAI. 

PREE SWITZERLAND! You cannot imag- 
■^ ine the feeling of relief I experienced as I 
passed from the lands of the Hohenzollerns and 
Hapsburgs to a free republic. 

It was February ii, 1917. To go into the rail- 
road station restaurant and order an omelette and 
fried potatoes without a food card and with choc- 
olate on the side seemed in itself a return to liberty. 

Our Minister, Mr. Stovall, gave us a dinner and 
evening reception so that we could meet all the 
notables and we lunched with the French Ambas- 
sador ( for France maintains an Embassy in Switz- 
erland) and dined with the British Minister, Sir 
Horace Rumbold, a very able gentleman who had 
been Chancellor of the British Embassy in Berlin 
before the war. 

As war had not yet been declared between Ger- 
many and the United States the correspondents of 
German newspapers waylaid me. Some seemed to 
think that in spite of the insulting blow given us by 
Germany, we nevertheless, scared to whiteness by 
the U-boat ultimatum, would lend all our energies 
to bring about a German peace. 

I received a letter from one of the editors of a 

230 



SWITZERLAND— ANOTHER KIND OF NEUTRAL 

Swiss newspaper published in Berne, probably in- 
spired by the German Legation there, asking me if 
President Wilson, in spite of the break in relations, 
would not continue his work for peace. 

We all know that Switzerland is a republic but 
even those of us who have travelled there, probably 
because we were on a holiday, gave little thought 
to the Swiss political system. Indeed before this 
war we cared little about the government of any 
country except our own. 

The present constitution of Switzerland was 
adopted in 1848 and in many particulars is modelled 
after that of the United States. 

There are the same three great Federal powers, 
the Federal Assembly, representing the legislative 
branch, the Federal Council, representing the exec- 
utive branch, and the Federal Court, representing 
the judicial branch. 

The lower Chamber is made up of representa- 
tives elected directly by the people, and the other 
Chamber of members elected, as in our Senate, two 
by each canton or state. The Bundesrat or Fed- 
eral Council which has all the executive powers, is 
elected by the Federal Assembly and it is the Chair- 
man of this body who is known as the President of 
Switzerland. In reality he does not possess the 
powers of our President, but it is the Bundesrat as 
a whole which exercises the powers. Each mem- 
ber of this Council is minister or head of some sep- 
arate department, such as Military, Justice and 
Police, Foreign Affairs, Posts and Railways, etc. 
The Swiss Cantons have much power, and there is 

231 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

a distinct jealousy by each canton of states' rights. 

It is in Switzerland that we encounter two little 
friends, sponsored by William Jennings Bryan — 
the Initiative and Referendum — means by which 
the Swiss people are given a direct voice in their 
government. By the Initiative a certain number of 
voters may propose new legislation and when the 
requisite number sign a petition the proposed law 
must then be submitted to popular vote. This rule 
applies both in the separate cantons and in the Re- 
public as a whole. 

The Referendum, more often used, provides that 
if the requisite number of signers be obtained any 
law passed by a cantonal legislative body or by the 
Federal Assembly shall be submitted to the voters. 
In certain cantons the Referendum is obligatory and 
every law is thus submitted to the people. In prac- 
tice the Referendum has acted as a check to ad- 
vanced legislation. 

The Swiss have reason to fear the designs of 
Prussia. As late as 1856, Prussia and Switzerland 
were on the edge of war. Prior to 181 5 Neuchatel 
acknowledged the King of Prussia as its overlord; 
the Congress of Vienna, however, included this 
territory in the Swiss Confederation as one of the 
Swiss Cantons. But Prussia, in spite of this formal 
arrangement, with its usual disregard of treaties, 
continued to claim Neuchatel. 

In 1848 the revolutionary influence resulted in 
more democratic rule in Neuchatel but the Prussian 
propagandist of that day was at work and, in 1856, 
Count Pourtales' plot was discovered and several 

232 



SWITZERLAND— ANOTHER KIND OF NEUTRAE 

hundred prisoners seized by the Swiss government. 
All but a score were released. Frederick William 
IV of Prussia demanded their instant pardon and 
release and ordered the mobilisation of his army 
but, finally, through the intervention of Napoleon 
III, the affair was settled, the prisoners released by 
way of France, and the Prussian King renounced 
all rights over Neuchatel. 

The Kulturkampf of Bismarck, his contest 
against the Roman Catholics, had its echoes in Swit- 
zerland and it probably was due also to German in- 
fluence that until 1866 full freedom was withheld 
from the Jews. 

The Red Cross had its origin in Switzerland and 
the Geneva Conventions have done much to bring 
about the adoption of better rules of war. The Ge- 
neva Cross is the badge of international charity and 
help. 

Switzerland always has opened her doors to the 
politically oppressed. Over ten thousand revolu- 
tionists from Baden took refuge in Switzerland in 
1848. Austria, in 1853, as a reprisal for the alleged 
actions of Italians in Switzerland in conspiring 
against Austria, drove thousands of Swiss citi- 
zens from that part of Italy occupied by Austria. 
Also in the Franco-Prussian war the French Gen- 
eral Bourbaki and his army of nearly one hundred 
thousand men sought an asylum in Switzerland. 

The army of Switzerland is a true citizen army 
— an army of universal service — and it is due to the 
existence of this force that Switzerland remains 
an independent state in the midst of Europe. 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

To stand apart in Europe is the very essence of 
life for Switzerland. It is regrettable therefore 
that German money and German propaganda and 
some sympathy for Germany among the officers of 
the army should have touched the fine flower of 
Swiss neutrality. A triumphant Prussia and a free 
Switzerland cannot exist in the same Europe. 

In Switzerland, it is in the military that we find 
the greatest sympathy for Germany. In 19 15, Swiss 
officers were discovered working out the ciphers of 
other nations for the benefit of the German armies 
and the punishment given, at the ensuing Court 
Martial, was not only incommensurate with the of- 
fence, but was a plain indication of the early sym- 
pathies of the Chiefs of the Swiss Staflf. 

The food question between the United States and 
Switzerland requires delicate handling. We like 
the Swiss and do not wish them to suffer, but the 
Swiss must understand that our food is our own 
and that we do not propose it shall go to nourish 
Germans or that it shall take the place, in Switzer- 
land, of Swiss food sold by the Swiss to our ene- 
mies. 

The President of Switzerland related to me the 
difficult position in which Switzerland found her- 
self. Iron and coal, necessary to the industries of 
Switzerland, to keep the population warm and to 
cook the food, came, he said, from Germany, while 
food was shipped to the French Mediterranean port 
of Cette from America and the Argentine, and 
transported across part of France to Switzerland, 
so that since the war Switzerland, as the President 

234 



SWITZERLAND— ANOTHER KIND OF NEUTRAL 

explained, has been dancing about; first on one 
side, then on the other, in the attempt to get food 
through France and coal and iron through Ger- 
many. 

Everything in the office of the President was the 
extreme of republican simplicity. He questioned 
me about the situation in Germany, especially from 
the food standpoint. And I learned of the diffi- , 
culties of the Swiss. It must not be forgotten that 
in Switzerland about seventy per cent of the people 
speak German, twenty-three per cent, French, and 
seven per cent, Italian. Many of the German-speak- 
ing Swiss, of course, sympathise with Germany. 
They are the farmers, dairymen, etc., but in French- 
Switzerland, in the neighbourhood of Geneva and 
Lausanne, the industrial population sides with the 
Allies. Millions of the delicate fuses used on shells 
have been manufactured in that part of Switzerland 
for the Entente. In retaliation for this the Ger- 
mans boycotted Swiss watches. 

The usual German-paid propaganda newspapers 
operate in the principal towns. The army officers 
are the first to be influenced. It is the same in 
Switzerland as with the officers of many armies, 
solely because of the past reputation of the German 
military machine. 

We and the civil authorities of South America 
must not forget that Japan copied German mili- 
tary methods, that the armies of Argentina and 
Chili have been trained, for years, by German offi- 
cers sent there on temporary leave of absence from 
the German army. 

235 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Von Below, a German officer in Berlin who had 
been in the Argentine, used to make merry over the 
Argentine soldiers and said that they objected to 
drilling when it rained. I do not believe this offi- 
cer, but I should like to have the brave Argentine 
officers hear his jokes and gibes. 

We left, after three or four days in Berne, on the 
evening train, for the French frontier. In the 
train corridors, outside the compartments, spies 
stood staring at us, spies pretending to read 
newspapers came into each compartment; po- 
lice spies, betrayed by heavy boots; general staff 
spies, betrayed by a military stiffness ; women spies ; 
spies assorted and special. And these gentry had 
followed me all over Berne — for in the neutral 
countries of Europe as well as the belligerents are 
we constantly reminded of the insidious methods 
of Kaiserism. 



22,6 



CHAPTER XVIII 

A GUMPSe OF FRANCE 

A T Pontarlier, on the French frontier, a special 
train was waiting for my party and into this 
train a German- American inserted himself after 
first mixing his baggage with mine. I went through 
the train and this enterprising gentleman and an- 
other German-American were detained for some 
days at Pontarller. One of them, later, on reach- 
ing Spain, reported immediately to the head of the 
German secret service there, thus justifying my sus- 
picions. Fortunately when he subsequently arrived 
in Spain we had already sailed, so that if he bore 
any sinister message from Berlin to the German 
agents in Spain to hinder our voyage, he was too 
late. 

The night trip to Paris was uneventful. At the 
Gare St. Lazare we were met by our Ambassador, 
Mr. Sharp, with several of his staff and a repre- 
sentative of the French Foreign Office. 

Paris was indeed a changed Paris since I had 
last seen it in October of 1913. The pavement in 
the Place Vendome, in front of the Hotel Ritz, 
where we stopped, was full of holes, but taxicabs, 
almost as extinct as the dodo in Berlin, rushed mer- 
rily through the crowded streets. The boulevards 

^Z7 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

were lively, full of soldiers looking far more cheery, 
far more snappy, than the heavy footed German 
soldiers who so painfully tramped down Unter den 
Linden. Many soldiers were to be seen without an 
arm or leg, something impossible in Germany 
where, especially in Berlin, it has been the policy of 
the Government to conceal those maimed by war 
from the people at home. Although constantly 
walking the streets of Berlin I never saw a German 
soldier without an arm or leg. Once motoring near 
Berlin I came upon a lonely country house where, 
through the iron rails of the surrounding park, 
numbers of maimed soldiers peered out, prisoners 
of the autocratic government which dared not show 
its victims to the people. 

At night in Paris the taxicabs and autos rushed 
dangerously through streets darkened to baffle the 
Zeppelins. In the hotel there was little heat, only 
wood fires in one's room. In the homes a single 
electric light bulb was permitted for each room; 
violation of this rule meant loss of electric light 
from that apartment for three weeks. 

In the Ritz Restaurant there were lights on the 
table only. And the gloomy dining room, where 
a few Americans and British officers and their fam- 
ilies conversed in whispers, resembled but little the 
gay resort so often filled, before the war, with 
American millionaires. Olivier, the head waiter, 
appeared only at night, absent during the day on 
war duties. No lights, no music, it is hard to think 
of Paris without these, Paris which calls itself the 
"Ville Lumiere"— the City of Light. 



A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE 

On our first Sunday in Paris a grand concert was 
held in the Trocadero — a great government owned 
auditorium on the banks of the Seine, — under Ca- 
nadian auspices. When Ambassador Sharp and I 
entered the centre box the vast audience rose and 
cheered — a new sensation for me to be so welcomed 
after my war-years in Berlin, where I had been har- 
ried and growled at, the representative of a hated 
people, of a people at once envied for their wealth, 
hated because they had dared to keep their rights 
and treaties and sell goods to the enemies of Ger- 
many, and despised because the Germans believed 
them too rich and cowardly, too fat and degenerate, 
to fight in the great war for the mastery of the 
world. 

Lord Esher called on me at the hotel and invited 
me on behalf of Field Marshal Haig, to visit the 
British line. I am sorry that I did not have time 
to accept this invitation, especially as in Germany I 
had not even heard the distant firing of cannon. 

The Great General Headquarters at Charleville- 
Mezieres where I had visited Emperor William at 
the end of April, 191 6, was only about seventy kilo- 
metres from the battle front near Rheims. I was. 
naturally anxious to inspect, if not the front 
trenches, at least the vicinity of the front, but the 
army officers attached to the German Foreign Of- 
fice, who had accompanied me, informed me that 
the Chancellor had telephoned all the Generals in 
the vicinity to ask permission for me to visit the 
lines but that not one of them would permit me to 
visit his sector. This was a fairly certain indica- 

239 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

tion that sooner or later the hate for America must 
lead to war or that the U-boat settlement made at 
the time was only a stop gap until the increased 
number of submarines would enable Germany to 
commence ruthless U-boat war once more in defi- 
ance of law and humanity, and with a greater hope 
of military success. 

Compared to Berlin, Paris seemed a land of 
abundance. In the restaurants, however, the cus- 
tomer was limited to two courses, but with the priv- 
ilege of a second helping. 

I called on Lord Bertie, the British Ambassador, 
to ask him to convey my acknowledgments to the 
Honourable Arthur James Balfour, from whom I 
had received a most complimentary communica- 
tion. I found him in the beautiful home of 
the British Embassy on the Rue St. Honore, a house 
so cold for want of coal that I was compelled to 
make my visit short for fear of pneumonia. 

With Mrs. Gerard we lunched with our friends 
from Berlin, Jules Cambon, a former French Am- 
bassador there, and his family, at the La Rue res- 
taurant, opposite the Madelaine. Cambon seemed 
as game as ever, but fatigued. 

Briand, who was then Premier, invited me to 
breakfast at the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The 
other guests included our Ambassador, Mr. Sharp, 
Cambon and the Ambassadors of Britain, Italy, 
Russia and Japan and several distinguished French- 
men. 

I did not sit next to Briand as I ranked after 
the Ambassadors accredited to France, but after 

240 




AMBASSADORS WILLIAM G. SHARP AND JAMES W. GERARD 
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN PARIS, FEBRUARY, 1917 



A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE 

lunch I sat alone with him before the fire in one of 
the large and beautiful salons and there we had a 
long talk, as, naturally, he wanted to know about 
the situation in Germany. He impressed me as a 
strong man, with the vigour of an orator, a man 
of temperament, a man endowed by nature to be- 
come a leader of the French — as the French were 
before the war. 

Lord Esher, at the request of General Lyautey, 
then at the head of the military force of France, 
took me to see that General. I had to wait for him 
some time, as he was appearing before a commit- 
tee of the Chamber of the Senate. His inability to 
agree with the Chamber caused his resignation not 
long afterwards. 

I was struck in France by the fact that the lead- 
ers, civil, military and naval, seemed older than 
those in similar positions in other countries. 

The present Premier, Clemenceau, is an example 
of this fondness of the French for government by 
old men. Clemenceau is seventy-six years old, but 
is a vigorous fighter. 

Mrs. Gerard and I lunched with Gabriel Hano- 
taux and his attractive wife at their home. Cam- 
bon was there, and Ribot, since become Premier of 
France, a good old man; also the Secretary of the 
Navy and several learned French philosophers and 
members of the Academy and one of the heads of 
the Credit Lyonnais, perhaps the greatest financial 
institution of France. 

War, war — who could talk of anything else? 
Hanotaux said that in our time we had been un- 

241 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

usually fortunate, unusually free from war, that 
there was underneath France, underneath even the 
fair city of Paris, under the smiling sunlit fields, 
another France, a France of caves and catacombs, 
excavated by the poor people, the plain people who, 
during the One Hundred Years' War, had sought 
in marching armies, the far-riding plunderers and 
the depths of the earth refuge from the harassing, 
camp followers, the roving bands of ''White Com- 
panies," the robber barons who, English and 
French, Gascon and Norman, harried the lands of 
France. 

I said that I had heard the statement made, 
and there seemed no reason to doubt it, that 
since the birth of Christ the world has only 
in one year out of every thirteen enjoyed a rest 
from war. 

Mr. Fabre-Luce, Vice-President of the Credit 
Lyonnais, told us of an interesting book writ- 
ten by a Russian and published before the 
war which predicted much that has happened 
in this war with almost the foresight of a 
Cassandra. I was so impressed that I se- 
cured a copy. 

This book, "The Future War," by Ivan Stani- 
slavovich Bloch, counsellor of the Russian Em- 
pire, and published in 1892, had so great 
an effect on the Czar of Russia that it 
was the reading of it which impelled him 
to call the Peace Conference at The Hague. 
In the course of his book the author explains 
that it is impossible for the Powers to continue 

242 



A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE 

longer in the path of armaments and that they 
ought to look each other in the face and demand 
where these great armaments and this extension of 
forces are conducting them. He writes : 

"How can one believe it possible to solve international 
questions by means of the veritable cataclysm which will 
constitute, with the present means of destruction, war 
waged between the five great Powers, by ten millions of 
soldiers? . . . In this war explosives so powerful will be 
employed that every grouping of troops on the flat coun- 
try or even imder the protection of fortifications will be- 
come almost impossible and that, therefore, the prepa- 
rations of this character made in expectation of the war 
will become useless. . . . 

"The future war will see the use of a great quantity of 
new aids to war, bicycles, pigeons, telegraph, telephones, 
optical instruments and photographic instruments for the 
purpose of mapping from a great distance the positions 
occupied by the enemy and means to observe the move- 
ments of the enemy such as observing ladders, balloons 
and so on. . . . 

"In the future war every body of troops holding itself 
on the defensive or found taking the offensive, when it 
is not the question of sudden assault, will have to fortify 
itself in a chosen position and the war will be confined 
principally to the form of a series of combats in which 
the possession of fortified positions will be disputed, and 
in which the assailant will have to meet the accessory de- 
fensives in the neighbourhood of the fortifications such 
as barricades, barbed wire, etc., the destruction of these 
objects costing many victims. . . . The infantry, when 
on the defensive, will dig itself in. The conduct of the 
war will depend, in a large measure, on the artillery." 

243 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

According to our author, who foresaw "No 
Man's Land" between the two opposing forces, 
"there will be formed a certain zone absolutely im- 
passable in consequence of the terrible fire with 
which it will be inundated from a short distance 
from each side." Blochadds: "This war will last 
a long time and entire nations will be seen in 
arms or rather the flower of each nation. Ger- 
many will begin the war by throwing itself on 
France and then, using the many German railroads, 
will turn against Russia. By virtue of its military 
force Germany will take the initiative of operations 
and will make the war on the two fronts." 

His prophetic eye saw even the submarine war of 
the future. "It will happen, possibly, that the fu- 
ture war will produce engines of war completely 
unknown and unexpected up to the present time; 
in any event one can foresee the advent in a short 
time of submarines destined to carry below even 
ironclads, torpedoes powerful enough to wreck the 
strongest ships." 

He quotes the opinions of Jomini, who says that 
future armies will not be composed of troops re- 
cruited voluntarily but of entire nations called by 
a law to arms and who will not fight for a change 
of frontier but for their existence. Jomini states 
"that this state of aiTairs will bring us back to the 
third and the fourth centuries, calling to our minds 
those shocks of immense peoples who disputed 
among themselves the European continent," and 
"that if a new legislation and a new international 
law do not come to put an end to these risings of 

244 



A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE 

whole peoples that it is impossible to foresee where 
the ravages of future war will stop. It will be- 
come a scourge more terrible than ever, because the 
population of civilised nations will be cut down, 
while in the interior of each nation the normal eco- 
nomic life will be arrested, communications inter- 
rupted and if the war is prolonged financial crises 
will come with a fearful rise in the price of every- 
thing and famine with all its consequences." 

Bloch, in depicting the future war, says that "in 
•1870, the struggle was between two Powers, while 
in the war of the future at least five great nations 
will take part without speaking of the intervention 
of Turkey and England. . . . The comparing of 
the coming war with any war of the past is impos- 
sible because the increase in the effective fighting 
forces has been of a rapidity so unexampled and 
this increase brings with it so great an augmenta- 
tion of expenditures and of victims that the future 
war will have the character of a struggle for the 
existence of nations. ... It is true that the war 
of 1870 gave us something of an example of this 
character. That was a war without mercy, brought 
on by secular hate, a war of revenge on the part of 
the Germans because of the ancient victories of the 
French, a war where volunteers were shot and vil- 
lages burned and where unheard of exactions were 
imposed on the conquered whom the conqueror 
sought to wrong and weaken for a long period of 
time. A new war in Central Europe will be a sec- 
ond edition of the same struggle but by how much 
will it not surpass the former wars by its magnitude 

245 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

and by its length and by the means of destruction 
employed." 

Does not Bloch give a better prediction of this 
war than the- often quoted Bernhardi? 

The table conversation at Hanotaux's was in 
French ; few Frenchmen and hardly any public men 
in France speak English. 

At this lunch, Ribot, since Premier, said to me, 
"In men, in fighting, we can hold out, but we must 
have help on the credit side." 

How much more than credit have we sent since 
to help beloved, beleaguered France! 

My interview with President Poincare of France 
was set for five-thirty in the Elysee Palace. I had 
to wait some minutes in an ante-room, hung with 
splendid tapestries, where the secretary in charge 
introduced me to Deschanel, the Secretaire perpet- 
ual of the Academic Frangaise, with whom I had a 
few minutes' talk. 

The President sat in a small, beautifully decorat- 
ed room in this historical Elysee Palace. A small 
fire burned in the grate, a bit of grateful warmth in 
almost coalless Paris. He, too, plied me with ques- 
tions, but not as closely as others, about the land 
I had left behind. He spoke of a great gift of 
money made by James Stillman, a fund to help the 
families of members of the Legion of Honour. 

Poincare is a man of fifty-seven, wears a small 
beard growing grey, and is a little under medium 
height (of this country) and has much the manner 
of an American lawyer. What a contrast those 
polite, agreeable Frenchmen were to the stiff, for- 

246 



A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE 

mal, overbearing Germans. There are ''well born" 
Germans with charming international manners and 
the lower classes in Germany have kindly, natural 
manners, but the manners of the minor members 
of the merchant class and of the lesser officials is 
rude to boorishness. 

And here I want to say a word about the de- 
mocracy of my own countrymen. Before the war 
and during it we entertained countless Americans 
in the Embassy; all sorts and under a variety of 
conditions, Jew and Gentile, business men and stu- 
dents, travellers and musicians. They carried 
themselves with ease, whatever the occasion. I 
was proud of them always and of our system of 
education that had given them such pleasant equal- 

After my arrival in Berlin a magnificent darkey, 
named George Washington Bronson, called in 
search of a job. Over six feet four and well built, 
I thought he would make an impressive appearance 
opening carriage doors or taking hats in the hall. 
So I engaged him. But he did not get on well with 
the other servants, and his discharge followed. 
Great consternation was caused shortly afterwards 
at our Lincoln day reception when Mrs. Gerard 
and the ladies of the Embassy were receiving the 
American Colony, by the report that George Wash- 
ington, dressed up to the nines, accompanied by a 
coloured friend, presenting the appearance of a new 
red buggy, was on his way up stairs. I decided 
that on Lincoln's birthday all were welcome; so 
George Washington and his friend, resplendent, re- 

247 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

ceived the same greeting accorded all Americans 
and the manners of George Washington excelled 
those of a Grand Duke. But although one could 
see his mouth water, he did not approach the table 
where our local Ruggles presided over the refresh- 
ments. There was *'that" about Ruggles' eye which 
told George Washington he would have to "go to 
the mat" before his former superior officer would 
serve him with champagne. 

The cold in Paris was bitter, biting into the very 
bones, and all classes of the population suffered 
intensely from the lack of coal. In the theatres, for 
instance, there was absolutely no heat. Theatrical 
performances were permitted in each theatre three 
times a week. Evening dress was prohibited. I 
went to the Folies Bergeres, arriving so late that 
the crowded house had warmed itself and it was 
possible to stay until the end in spite of the want 
of ventilation. 

At one of the theatres I arrived early, but the 
cold was so bitter that even sitting in fur overcoat 
and with my hat on I was so chilled I had to leave 
after twenty minutes. This play was a revue, the 
actresses appearing in the scanty costumes peculiar 
to that form of entertainment, iDUt the cold was of 
such intensity that they had added their street 
furs, presenting a curiously comical effect. 

I spoke to many of the soldiers in the streets. 
All were animated by a new spirit in France, an 
obstinate calm, a determination to see this thing 
through, to end forever the fear of Prussian inva- 
sion which for so many years had impended. If 

248 



A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE 

any sign of weakness was apparent it was among 
the financiers ; not among the poor and the men of 
the trenches. 

At the railway station I talked with a blue-clad 
French soldier, calm, witty, but determined. He 
said, "My family comes from the East of France, 
my great grandfather was killed by the Prussians 
in 1814, my grandfather was shot in his garden by 
the Prussians in 1870, my father died of grief, in 
1916, because my two sisters in Lille fell into Prus- 
sian hands and were taken as their slaves with all 
that that means. I have decided that we must end 
this horror once and for all, so that my children 
can cultivate their little fields without this constant 
haunting fear of the invading Prussian." 

We left Paris on the evening train for the Span- 
ish border. Newspaper men taking flashlights and 
"poilus" in uniform crowded the station platform 
as the train with our still numerous party pulled 
out. 

How France has disappointed German expecta- 
tions! France to-day is not the France that calls 
out, "We are betrayed," and runs away after the 
failure of its first assault. France to-day is a calm 
France that seeks out its traitors, and deliberately 
punishes them, that organises with an efficiency 
we once thought a Prussian monopoly, a France 
that bleeds but fights on, a France that, standing 
with its back to its beloved, sunny fields, with many 
of her dearest sons dead, facing the Kaiser across 
No Man's Land, cries boldly, bravely to the world, 
the war cry of Verdun, "They shall not pass!'* 

249 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

But even while war goes on, even while the 
French poilus hold fast the long battle line, the 
French people are beset within by agents of the 
Kaiser. Face to face they are with the secret 
agents, the spies, the informers, the buyers of news- 
papers and of public men, the traffickers in honour 
who, behind French citizenship or neutral pass- 
ports, seek to divide France, to make the soldier at 
the front feel that he is betrayed by traitors at 
home, to render the French distrustful and suspi- 
cious of each other and thus to strike as mortal a 
blow at the French defence as was attempted at 
Verdun. 

Bolo Pasha and all his tribe slip past trench and 
barbed wire and do more damage than a German 
army corps to the cause of Liberty. 



250 



CHAPTER XIX 

MY INTERVIE:w with the king of SPAIN 

"^TEUTRALS — ^how obsolete the word seems! 
Yet there are some nations in Europe which 
will remain neutral no matter how great the hard- 
ship. How much this is due to inherent weaknesses 
of government, fears that the people may acquire 
too much of the infectious spirit of liberalism that 
war brings and thereby overthrow royalty, is hard 
to judge. But I must say that Kaiserism has omit- 
ted no word or act to impress upon the royalty of 
those countries, which might otherwise be inclined 
to aid the entente, the advantages to them of keep- 
ing out of the war unless they become allies of 
Germany. 

You will meet Kaiserism in Spain and the other 
neutral countries of Europe as much as you will in 
Austria or Bulgaria or Turkey. I do not mean 
that Spain, for instance, is by any means an ally of 
Germany, but I do mean that the German propa- 
gandist has had free rein. 

I shall never forget the fact that the King of 
Spain, during my talk with him, remarked: "Re- 
member that while I am King of Spain, I am also 
an Austrian Archduke." 

And not only is the King of Spain by descent and 

251 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

in the right of his father an Archduke of Austria 
but his mother was an Austrian Princess of the 
House of Hapsburg. Study, for the moment, the 
genealogy of the King and Queen of Spain and you 
will see how royalty is inter-related in this war. 

The Queen of Spain was brought up at the court 
of the late Queen Victoria of England and is a 
Battenberg princess. In 1823, Alexander, Prince 
of Hesse and the Rhine, took in morganatic mar- 
riage a Countess von Hauke. He made her Coun- 
tess of Battenberg and in 1858 she was given the 
title by the ruler of Hesse, of Princess Battenberg, 
her children and their descendants to take the same 
title. One of these Battenbergs, descendants of 
Countess von Hauke, married Beatrice, daughter 
of Queen Victoria, and the daughter of the mar- 
riage is the present Queen of Spain, who just be- 
fore her marriage to Alfonso was created a Royal 
Highness by King Edward VH. Queen Victoria 
Eugenia has become quite Spanish. With a man- 
tilla on her head, she attends bull fights and is very 
popular. 

The father of Alfonso XHI, Alfonso XH, was 
very intimate with the German Court. In 1883, 
he visited the old Emperor William I in Germany 
and accepted the colonelcy of a Uhlan regiment 
then in garrison in Strassburg, one of the towns 
taken from France in 1870. On his return jour- 
ney he stopped in Paris and was the object of a 
popular demonstration so violent that the President 
of France and his ministers called in a body to 
apologise. 

252 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF SPAIN 

Shortly thereafter the Crown Prince (later Em- 
peror) Friedrich paid a visit to Spain and an inti- 
macy was maintained between the two courts. 

It is the inclination of those in the king business 
to keep together and a tradition of Prussia that 
fellow Kings must be sustained and, if possible, 
maintained against democracy. That's why the 
Kaiser finds reciprocal sympathy in Spain. 

Our popular Ambassador, Mr. Willard, and his 
staff, with a representative of the Spanish Foreign 
Office, met us at the station at Madrid on my ar- 
rival from Paris. 

Madrid is a handsome city, comparatively mod- 
ern. From its highest point the great Royal Palace 
dominates the capital and from the palace the royal 
park stretches unbroken to the Guadarrama moun- 
tains sixty miles away. 

In many respects S^pain seems a land upside 
down. We arrived at Madrid just at the close of 
the Carnival season. Masked balls began at three 
in the afternoon and many theatres not until ten or 
even eleven at night. Madrid sleeps late. The rich 
people get up only in time for lunch. The streets 
are full of noise and people until four in the morn- 
ing, the sellers of lottery tickets making special ef- 
forts to swell the volume of night sounds. 

My visit to the King of Spain was at eleven in 
the morning. Ambassador Willard went with me. 
As we entered the palace and waited at the foot 
of an elevator, the car descended and one of the 
little Princes of Spain, about eight years old, dressed 
in a sailor suit, stepped out. Evidently he had been 

253 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

trained in royal urbanity for he immediately came 
up to us, shook hands and said, "Buenos dias." 

And as we strolled down a long corridor where 
Palace guards in high boots and cocked hats stood 
guard with halberds in their hands another little 
Prince, about eleven, also in a sailor suit, came out 
of a room and walked ahead of us ; behind followed 
two nuns, walking side by side at a respectful dis- 
tance. As he appeared in the corridor one of the 
guards stamped his halberd on the floor, calling out 
in Spanish, ''Turn out the guard — the Infant of 
Spain." And in the guardroom at the end of the 
corridor the guards, forming in line, clashing their 
arms, did honour to the baby Prince. 

Ambassador Willard and I waited in the great, 
splendid room of the Palace. Inside, priests and 
officers, ladies, officials, diplomats, were waiting to 
present petitions or pay homage to their King. Out- 
side in the court yard, the guard was being changed, 
infantry, cavalry and artillery all being repre- 
sented. A tuneful band played during the cere- 
mony of guard mount, which was witnessed by 
crowds of poor folk who are permitted to enter the 
Palace precincts as spectators. 

While waiting I was presented to the Archbishop 
of Toledo, head of the Spanish Church, resplend- 
ent in his gorgeous ecclesiastical robes. Finally 
a court official came and said that I was to go into 
the King alone; that Mr. Willard was to see him 
later. 

I found King Alfonso in a small room about 
twenty by fourteen feet. He wore a brown busi- 

254. 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF SPAIN 

ness suit, a soft shirt and soft collar fastened by a 
gold safety pin — quite the style of dress of an 
American collegian. He is tall and well built. 

The King speaks perfect English — without a 
trace of accent. After we had talked a few mo- 
ments, I noted the difference between Teuton and 
Latin, the vast abyss which separates the polite and 
courteous Spaniard, thinking of others, anxious to 
be hospitable, and the rough, conceited, aggressive 
Junker of Germany. How often have I found that 
we ourselves, although good hearted and easy go- 
ing, in comparison with our friends in South and 
Central America, do not measure up to the stand- 
ards of Castilian courtesy. 

Some one knocked at the door and King Alfonso 
rose and answered. He returned with odd look- 
ing implements in his hands which I soon dis- 
covered to be an enormous silver cocktail shaker 
and two goblets. After a dexterous shake, the 
King poured out two large cocktails, saying, "I un- 
derstand that you American gentlemen always 
drink in the morning." 

I had not had a cocktail for years and if I had 
endeavoured to assimilate the drink so royally pre- 
pared for me I should have been in no condition 
to continue the conversation. I think King Alfonso 
himself was quite relieved when, after a sip, I put 
my cocktail behind a statue. I noticed that he cam- 
ouflaged his in a similar manner. 

Unfortunately, as Maximilian Harden said, the 
Germans think of us as a land of dollars, trusts 
and corruption; and other nations think of us as 

255 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

devotees of the cocktail and of poker. Their school 
boys dream of fighting Indians in Pittsburg and 
hunting buflfalo in the deserts of the Bronx. 

The characteristic of Alfonso which impresses 
one immediately is that of extreme manliness. He 
has a sense of humour that will save him from many 
a mishap in his difficult post. He has a wide knowl- 
edge of men and affairs and, above all, as the 
Spaniards would put it, is muy espanol (very 
Spanish), not only in appearance but in his way 
of looking at things, a Spaniard of the best type, 
a Spaniard possessing industry and ambition and 
bravery, a Spaniard, in fact, of the days when 
Spain was supreme in the world. His favourite 
sport is polo, which he plays very well. Indeed, the 
game, which requires dash, quickness of thought, 
nerve and good riding, is particularly suited to the 
Spanish character. The King showed at the time 
of the anarchistic outbreaks, that he was a brave 
man. Yet he must be careful at all times to re- 
member that he is a constitutional king, that in 
a country like Spain leadership is dangerous, that 
he should always rather stand aside, let the repre- 
sentatives of the nation decide, thus taking no defi- 
nite position himself. A king who abandons the 
council table to shoot pigeons or play polo is often 
acting with far more wisdom than a constitutional 
ruler who attempts by the use of his strong person- 
ality and lofty position to force upon his council- 
lors a course which the majority of them do not 
recommend. 

The Spaniards are politically an exacting people. 

256 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF SPAIN 

But it is to be hoped that they will not turn the 
heavy artillery of their criticism upon a king who 
serves them so gracefully and well. 

The king has a natural desire to take a prominent 
part in the negotiations for peace, but here again 
is dangerous ground for him. He should be given 
a part, if possible, in the preliminaries of peace, 
but while I believe that he sympathises with one of 
the Entente countries, the Allies are forced to rec- 
ognise the fact of which he himself reminded me, 
that he is not only King of Spain, but Archduke 
of one of the Central Empires, the son of an Aus- 
trian Archduchess. 

The king told me that he was most desirous that 
American capital should become interested in the 
development of Spain. He did not tell me the rea- 
son for this desire but perhaps he fears that if Ger- 
man capital should take a great part in the develop- 
ment of industrial Spain that the tentacles of the 
German propaganda and spy system which go 
hand in hand with her commercial invaders would 
wrap themselves around the commercial, social and 
political life of Spain. 

Perhaps King Alfonso, when he wishes capital 
other than German to become interested in Spain, is 
thinking of the occurrences of 1885, when Spain 
and Germany so nearly clashed. In that year the 
crew of a German warship hoisted the flag of the 
German Empire on the island of Yap, one of the 
Carolina group, an island long claimed by Spain. 
The act so stirred the people of Spain that a great 
meeting was held in Madrid, attended by over one 

257 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

hundred thousand people. Later the mob attacked 
the German Embassy and Consulate, tore down the 
shield and flag staff of the Consulate and burned 
them in the principal square of Madrid. In the end, 
Spain was compelled to humbly apologise to Ger- 
many for the insult to the German Ambassador. 

Some years before the war the King sent to this 
country a special emissary to interest American 
capital in Spain. Means of transportation are very 
meagre. Great mineral districts are as yet unde- 
veloped and many other opportunities for foreign 
capital present themselves. 

I asked the Spaniards why Spain was not de- 
veloped by Spanish capital and they told me that the 
rich put all their money in government bonds and 
lived as gaily as possible on the interest. 

Our own Government, whether Democratic or 
Republican, must always be careful to see that taxes 
are not so high as to prevent the naturally enter- 
prising American from risking part of his capital 
in new ventures and such protection must be given 
to American citizens that they will continue to try 
their luck at business in foreign countries for the 
immediate benefit, of course, of themselves, but 
also for the commercial supremacy of the United 
States. 

The American who goes to Mexico and there de- 
velops a railroad or a plantation, a commercial busi- 
ness, a bank or a mine, is not only adding to the 
wealth of Mexico, but any money which he makes 
after paying his due share of taxes there, is brought 
back by him to the United States, is subject to tax- 

258 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF SPAIN 

ation, and by just so much not only lightens the tax 
burden of other Americans, but adds to the power 
in trade of the whole country. 

A business man who is taxed too much on any 
profits that he makes will, like the Spaniard, invest 
his capital in Government bonds. He will stop tak- 
ing up new enterprises because if he loses no one 
compensates him for his loss, while if he wins most 
of his profit is taken in taxes by the State. 

I do not think that the Spanish harbour any spirit 
of revenge against us because of the events of the 
Spanish- American war. There was nothing in that 
war to arouse particular resentment. No one used 
poison gas, or enslaved women or cut ofif the hands 
of babies. On our side, at least, there was 
an intense admiration for the splendid, chivalrous 
bravery of our enemies. Spain was, in reality, ben- 
efited by the loss of Cuba and the Philippines; in 
fact, they were practically lost to her before we en- 
tered the war. Thinking Spaniards believe the war 
with America benefited Spain; and the lower 
classes rejoice because their sons and husbands are 
not forced to serve in the Spanish Army in the 
fever-laden swamps of the tropics. 

On the war Spain is hopelessly divided: Con- 
servative, against Conservative; Liberal, against 
Liberal. The usual German propaganda is furious- 
ly at work, all the paraphernalia, bought newspa- 
pers — bribes. Roman Catholic prejudice against 
former French Governments is a great stumbling 
block in the way of the Allies in Spain, for that 
country became the refuge of many orders and 

259 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

priests driven from France. Many of the Spanish 
Catholics still resent the action of previous French 
Governments towards the Catholic Church. 

But whatever may be the faults of the French 
Government in this particular, whether it or the 
teaching orders went too far — the Roman Catholics 
of Spain sooner or later w^ill realise that, after all, 
the bulk of the French and Italian and Belgian 
people are their co-religionists, and they will recall 
the attempts of Bismarck to master the Roman 
Catholics of Germany and to bind its priests to the 
will of the Imperial Government, attempts recent 
enough to keep the Catholics of Germany still or- 
ganised in the political party which they created 
in the dark days of Bismarck's *Var for Civilisa- 
tion," as he dared call his contest with the great Ro- 
man Catholic Church. 

Spanish and other Catholics throughout the 
world will remember this and will remember, too, 
that from every valley of the Protestant section of 
the German Empire the eye can see a "Bismarck 
Thurm," or Bismarck Memorial Tower, erected on 
some commanding height by the admirers of the 
dead Iron Chancellor. 

I believe that after the war the Roman Catholic 
Church in France and Belgium will be on a health- 
ier, sounder basis, that it will have more and more 
influence with the people, that it will be more popu- 
lar and respected than before, unless some act on 
the part of the Pope should lead the French and 
Belgians to believe that he favours Germany. 
Priests are not exempt from military service in 

260 



MY INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF SPAIN 

France and these Abbes, fighting, dying, sufrering 
wounds and privation, working cheek to cheek with 
the soldiers of France, will do much to bring about 
the change. I met a number of these priest-war- 
riors in the prison camps of Germany. They are 
doing a great work and have earned the respect and 
love of their countrymen — their fellow prisoners. 

Several of these soldier Abbes were prisoners in 
Dyrotz, near Berlin, and I remember how they were 
looked up to by all the soldiers. What a consola- 
tion were these noble warriors who fought a two- 
fold winning fight — for their country and their 
faith. 

Spain has suffered much from the war. In the 
northeast part called Catalonia are located the man- 
ufacturing industries of Spain, cloth weaving, cot- 
ton spinning, etc. In Barcelona, the principal in- 
dustrial town, are many manufacturing industries. 
If these plants cannot obtain raw materials or a 
market for their finished products, then industrial 
depression ensues and thousands are thrown out of 
employment. 

So in the north, where iron ore is produced, the 
submarine blockade of England, chief buyer of iron 
ore and the seller of coal, has made itself felt in 
every province; and in the south, the land of sun 
and gypsies, oranges and vines, the want of sea and 
land transportation, the diminished exports of wine 
and fruits to other countries have brought many of 
the inhabitants to the verge of ruin. 

In the coast cities sailors and longshoremen are 
out of employment, and this condition — these hun- 

261 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

dreds of thousands without work through dis- 
turbance of industry, — has ripened the field for the 
German propagandist and agent who threatens the 
King with revolution, should he incline to the Allies. 
In no country of the world has the German agent 
been so bold and no neutral government has been 
more forcibly reminded in its policy and conduct of 
the fact that it is always face to face with Kai- 
serism. 



262 



CHAPTER XX 

GERMAN SPIES AND THEIR METHODS 

/^^ERMAN Spies who looked like ''movie" detec- 
^^ tives huns^ about and followed us on the jour- 
ney from Berlin to Switzerland, France and Spain. 
There were even suspicious characters among" the 
Americans with German accent who came on our 
special train from Germany to Switzerland. 

Berne is now the champion spy centre of the 
world. Switzerland, a neutral country, bordering 
on Germany, France, Italy and Austria, is the 
happy hunting ground and outfitting point for 
myriads of spies employed by the nations at war. 
The Germans, however, use more spies than all the 
other nations together. 

Bismarck said that there are male nations and 
female nations, and that Germany was a male na- 
tion — certainly the German has less of that heaven- 
sent feminine quality of intuition than other peo- 
ples. The autocrat, never mingling with the plain 
people of all walks of life, finds the spy a necessity. 

Spy spies on spy — autocracy produces bureau- 
cracy where men rise and fall not by the votes of 
their fellow citizens but by back stairs intrigue. 
The German office-holder fears the spies of his 
rivals. I often said to Germans holding high office 

263 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

during the war, "This strain is breaking you down, 
— all day in your office. Take an afternoon off and 
come shooting with me." The invariable answer 
was, "1 cannot — the others would learn it from 
their spies and would spread the report that I neg- 
lect business !" 

While in Spain I met the then Premier, Count 
Romanones, a man of great talent and impressive 
personality. He told me of the finding of a quan- 
tity of high explosives, marked by a little buoy, 
in one of the secluded bays of the coast. And that 
day a German had been arrested who had mysteri- 
ously appeared at a Spanish port dressed as a work- 
man. The workman took a first class passage to 
Madrid, went to the best hotel and bought a com- 
plete outfit of fine clothes. Undoubtedly the high 
explosive as well as the mysterious German had 
been landed from a German submarine. Whether 
the explosive was destined as a depot for subma- 
rines or was to help overturn the Spanish govern- 
ment was hard to guess, but Count Romanones was 
worried over the activity of the German agents in 
Spain. 

It has been very easy for German agents in 
America to communicate with Germany through 
this submarine post from Spain to Germany, the 
letters from America being sent to Cuba and thence 
on Spanish boats to Spain. 

At all times since the war the Germans have 
had a submarine post running direct from Germany 
to Spain. Shortly after our arrival in Spain Mrs. 
Gerard received mysteriously a letter written by a 

264 



GERMAN SPIES AND THEIR METHODS 

friend of hers, a German Baroness, in Berlin. This 
letter had undoubtedly been sent through the very- 
efficient German spy system. 

Sometime in 19 15 a German soldier, in uniform, 
speaking perfect English, called one day at the 
Embassy. He said that his name was Bode and 
that he had at one time worked for my father- 
in-law, the late Marcus Daly. Of course, we 
had no means of verifying his statements and 
Mrs. Gerard did not remember any one of that 
name or recall Bode personally. He said that he 
was fighting on the East front and that he had a 
temporary leave of absence, I gave him some 
money and later we sent him packages of food and 
tobacco to the front, but never received any ac- 
knowledgment. 

In Madrid one of my assistants, Frank Hall, 
while walking through the street, ran across Bode, 
who was fashionably attired. His calling cards 
stated that he was a mining engineer from Los An- 
geles, California. He told Hall a most extraordi- 
nary fairy story, saying that he had been captured 
by the Russians on the East front and sent to Si- 
beria, that from Siberia he had escaped to China 
and from there he had gradually worked his way 
back to America and thence to Spain. 

Of course, without any definite information on 
the subject it is impossible to say exactly what he 
was doing in Spain. But I am sure that it is far 
more likely he had landed from a German subma- 
rine on the coast of Spain and that he was posing 

265 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

as an American mining engineer for a particular 
purpose. 

I told certain people in Spain about Bode and of 
his intention to visit the mining districts of Spain 
where numbers of men are employed. Bode must 
have suspected that I had given information about 
him, for Hall and I received several postcards of a 
threatening character, evidently from him. 

My cables to and from the State Department 
passed through our legation at Copenhagen, and, 
of course, if the Germans knew our cipher these 
messages were read by them. On special occasions 
I made use of a super-cipher the key to which I 
kept in a safe in my bedroom and which only one 
secretary could use. The files of cipher cables sent 
and received were kept in a large safe in the Em- 
bassy. But before leaving Germany, knowing the 
Germans as I did, and particularly what they had 
done in other countries and to other diplomats, 
knowing how easy it would be for them to burglar- 
ise the safe after we left, when the Spaniards and 
Dutch were out of the building at night, I tossed all 
these despatches as well as the code books into a big 
furnace fire. Commander Gherardi and Secretary 
Hugh Wilson stood by and personally saw that the 
last scrap was burned. Of course, copies of all the 
cables are in the State Department. 

German spies are adepts at opening bags, steam- 
ing letters — all the old tricks. The easiest way to 
baffle them is to write nothing that cannot be pub- 
lished to the world. 

For a long time after the beginning of war I was 

266 



GERMAN SPIES AND THEIR METHODS 

too busy to write the weekly report of official gos- 
sip usually sent home by diplomats. I suppose the 
Germans searched our courier bags for such a re- 
port vainly. Anyway, its absence finally got on the 
nerves of Zimmermann so much that one day he 
blurted out, "Don't you ever write reports to your 
Government?" 

Sealed letters are opened by spies as follows: 




by inserting a pencil or small round object in the en- 
velops, steamed a little, if necessary; the envel- 
ope is opened at the end flap and the contents pulled 
out without disturbing the seal, the contents 
are then read, put in their place again, the end flap 
re-inserted, a little gum used and the envelope is as 
intact as before. 

267 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

The only safe way to seal an envelope is thus 




Even then a clever spy can open the letter, read 
the contents and seal it again. This is done by 
cutting through the seals with a hot razor — the di- 
vided seals are then united by pressing the hot razor 
against each side of the cut and then pressing the 
two parts of the cut seal together. This is, how- 
ever, a very delicate operation and doesn't always 
work. 

From the outbreak of war we sent and received 
our official mail through England, and couriers car- 
ried it between Berlin and London through Holland 
via Flushing and Tilbury. 

On account of the great volume of correspond- 
ence between Ambassador Page and myself on the 
affairs of German prisoners in England and Eng- 
lish prisoners in Germany, there were many pouches 
every week. These were leather mail bags opened 
only by duplicate keys kept in London and Berlin 
and, for the American mail, in Berlin and Wash- 
ington. Our couriers did their best to keep the nu- 
merous bags in their sight during the long journey 
but on many occasions our couriers were separated, 

268 



GERMAN SPIES AND THEIR METHODS 

I am sure with malicious purpose, from their bags 
by the German railway authorities and on some oc- 
casions the bags not recovered for days. 

Undoubtedly at this time the Germans opened 
and looked over the contents of the bags. Later 
in the war our courier while on a Dutch mail boat, 
running between Flushing and England, was twice 
captured with the boat by a German warship and 
taken into Zeebrugge. Undoubtedly here, too, the 
bags were secretly opened and our uncoded des- 
patches and letters read. 

German spies were most annoying in Havana and 
one of them, a large dark man, followed me about 
at a distance of only six feet, with his eyes glued 
on the small bag which I carried from a thick strap 
hanging around my shoulder. I brought it from 
Germany in that way. I never let it out of my 
hands or sight. 

What was in that bag? Among other things were 
the original telegrams written by the Kaiser in his 
own handwriting, facsimiles of which appear in my 
earlier book, ''My Four Years in Germany," and the 
treaty which the Germans tried to get me to sign 
while they held me as a prisoner. Under the terms 
they proposed the German ships interned in Amer- 
ica were to have the right in case of war, to sail for 
Germany under a safe conduct to be obtained from 
the Allies by the United States. Somewhat of a 
treaty! And quite a new, bright and original 
thought by some one in the Foreign Office or Ger- 
man Admiralty. There were also in this mysteri- 

269 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

ous bag many other matters of mterest that may 
some day see the light. 

Poisonous propaganda and spying are the twin 
offspring of Kaiserism. 

There is in Mexico, for instance, one force that 
never sleeps, — the German propaganda. It is the 
same method as that used by the Teutons in every 
country, the purchase or rental of newspaper prop- 
erties, bribing public men and officers of the army 
and the insidious use of Germans who are engaged 
in commerce. This propaganda is backed by enor- 
mous sums of money appropriated by the German 
government which directs how all its officers and 
agents, high and low, shall participate in the cam- 
paign. 

In the long run a paid propaganda always fails. 
It is like paying money to blackmailers. The black- 
mailer who has once received money becomes so in- 
satiable that even the Bank of England will not sat- 
isfy him in the end. Sometimes the newspapers 
which are not bought, but are equally corrupt, be- 
come vehement in their denunciation of the country 
making the propaganda in the hope of being bought 
and in the hope that their bribe money will be in 
proportion to their hostility. Corrupted public men 
who are not bribed often become sternly virtuous 
and denunciatory with a similar hope. Those who 
have received the wages of shame, on the other 
hand, become more insistent in their demands, cry- 
ing, ''Give! Give!" like the daughter of the horse- 
leech. 

270 



GERMAN SPIES AND THEIR METHODS 

The blows of war must be struck quickly. De- 
lays are dangerous and the temporary paralysis of 
one country by propaganda may mean the loss of 
the war. The United States has been at a great dis- 
advantage because our officials have not had the 
authority, the means or the money to fight the 
German propaganda with effective educational cam- 
paigns, both offensive and defensive. 

Bernstorff in this country disposed of enormous 
sums for the purpose of moulding American public 
opinion. I, in Berlin, was without one cent with 
which to place America's side before the German 
people. It is a conflict of two systems. In Berlin 
I did not even have money to pay private detectives 
and on the rare occasions when I used them as, for 
instance to find out who was connected with the 
so-called American organisation, the League of 
Truth, which was engaged in a violent propaganda 
against America inside Germany, I was obliged to 
bear the expense personally. 

South of the Rio Grande the Germans are work- 
ing against us, doing their best to prejudice the 
Mexicans against the United States, playing upon 
old hatreds and creating new ones and, in the mean- 
time, by their purchase of properties and of mines 
creating a situation that will constitute for us in 
the future a most difficult and dangerous problem. 

The Germans cannot understand why we do not 
take advantage of conditions in Mexico in order 
to conquer and hold that unfortunate country. 
They could not believe that we were actuated by a 
spirit of idealism and that we were patiently suf- 

271 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

fering much in order really to help Mexico. They 
could not believe that we were waiting in order to 
convince not only Mexico but the other States of 
Central America and the great friendly republics 
of South America, that it was not our policy to use 
the dissensions and weakness of our neighbours to 
gain territory. 

On one occasion before the war I and several 
other Ambassadors were dining with the Kaiser 
and after dinner the conversation turned to the 
strange sights to be seen in America. One of the 
Ambassadors, I think it was Cambon, said that he 
had seen in America whole houses being moved 
along the roads, something of a novelty to Euro- 
pean eyes where the houses, constructed of brick 
and stone, cannot be transported from place to place 
like our wooden frame house. The Emperor jok- 
ingly remarked : *' Yes, I am sure that the Ameri- 
cans are moving their houses. They are moving 
them down towards the Mexican border." 



2J2 



CHAPTER XXI 

EN ROUTE HOME — KAISERISM IN AMERICA 

/^UR party was so numerous that we were com- 
^"^ pelled to charter a special train to take us 
from Madrid to La Corufia, the port in the extreme 
northwestern corner of Spain from which the In- 
fanta Isabela was to sail. 

Just before the train started, a Spanish gentle- 
man from the Foreign Office, who had courteously 
come to see us off, said to me, "Do you know you 
have a Duke as engineer?" "The Duke of Sara- 
gossa is going to take out your train." So we ran 
forward to the engine and I shook hands with the 
Duke who was in blue overalls. 

This Duke of Saragossa, Grandee of Spain, 
often drives the engine of the King's train. Why 
he engineered our train I do not'know, unless it was 
because of the rumours that German agents would 
try to stop my journey home. 

At any rate the Duke proved a most competent 
engineer, guiding us with velvet touch through the 
steep inclines and sharp turns of the Guardarrama 
mountains. At Venta de Baiios his turn at the en- 
gine ended and on my invitation he came to dine 
with us in the dining car. He proved a most charm- 
ing gentleman, speaking English well. He said that 

273 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

his great ambition was to visit America and see 
the big locomotives and the pretty girls. At dinner 
he was, of course, dressed in his overalls and car- 
ried out the professional touch by using clean cot- 
ton waste instead of a pocket handkerchief. 

Arrived at La Coruha in the morning, carriages 
sent by the Spanish government met us and the 
Mayor and the other officials were most polite. The 
Mayor accompanied us on board ship next day, giv- 
ing to Mrs. Gerard a beautiful basket of flowers en- 
twined with ribbons of the colours of the City of 
La Coruiia. 

We found the Infanta Isahela a clean splendid 
ship — her Captain competent and kind. I cheer- 
fully recommend her to any who wish a safe voy- 
age across the Atlantic during the war. 

My stay in Havana was brief and I was soon en 
route northward from Key West. 

As our train came north through Florida there 
were crowds and bands at the stations and at St. 
Augustine my eyes were delighted by the sight of 
Frank Munsey and Ex-Senator Chauncey Depew. 

At the station in Washington Secretary McAdoo 
met me. What a splendid record of achievement is 
his since the war, and now with the burden of all 
the railways in the country added to that of finance 
I suppose in no country at war has one man so suc- 
cessfully undertaken such gigantic tasks. 

President Wilson was ill in bed but next day got 
up on purpose to hear my report. I was with him 
for over an hour. 

The following day I arrived in New York, being 

274 




THE INFANTA ISABELLA, ON WHICH AMBASSADOR GERARD 
RETURNED FROM EUROPE. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN 
HAVANA HARBOR, MARCH, 1917 



EN ROUTE HOME— KAISERISM IN AMERICA 

met in Jersey City by a committee headed by the 
celebrated lawyer, John B. Stanchfield; Clarence 
Mackay, Herbert Swope (whose splendid articles in 
the Nezv York World were the first warnings to 
America and other countries respecting the ruthless 
submarine warfare), United States Marshal 
Thomas D. McCarthy, State Senator Foley, James 
J. Hoey, — a faithful trio of good friends who saw 
me off for Denmark only a few months before. I 
was escorted to the City Hall where I was wel- 
comed by the Mayor. In a speech on the steps of 
the City Hall I said : 

"We are standing to-day very near the brink of war, 
but I want to assure you that if we should be drawn 
into the conflict it will be only after our President has 
exhausted every means consistent with upholding the 
honour and dignity of the United States to keep us from 
war. I left Berlin with a clear conscience, because I felt 
that during all my stay there I had omitted nothing to 
make for friendly relations and peace between the two 
nations. 

"I am very glad to-day to see on the list of this Recep- 
tion Committee the names of people of German descent. 
It is but natural that citizens of German descent in the 
beginning of the war should have had a sentimental feel- 
ing toward Germany, that they should have looked back 
through rose-coloured glasses on that land which, how- 
ever, they left because they did not have equality of op- 
portunity. We read to-day in the newspapers for the 
first time that there is a prospect that after the war the 
Germans will be given an equal share in their own gov- 
ernment. I believe that in our hour of trial we can rely 
upon the loyalty of our citizens of German descent, and 

275 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

if they would follow me I would not be afraid to go out 
with a regiment of them and without any fear of being 
shot from behind. 



"The nation that stands opposite to us to-day has 
probably no less than 12,000,000 men under arms. 
I have seen the Germans take more prisoners in one 
afternoon than there are men in the entire United States 
Army. 

"Does it not seem to you ridiculous that the two States 
of New York and New Jersey should have more chauf- 
feurs in them than there are soldiers in our army? My 
companions from the Twelfth Regiment that have hon- 
oured me by coming here to-day, and more men like them 
throughout the country, have done what they can. But 
they can't do it all. There must be a public sentiment 
if we are to maintain ourselves as a nation. If we had 
a million men under arms to-day we should not be near 
the edge of war. 

"Gentlemen, I have tried in Berlin to be, as the Mayor 
has told you, an American Ambassador, and I thank you 
because you, an audience of patriotic Americans, by your 
presence here set your seal of approval upon my con- 
duct during the last two and a half years." 

I have never been able to understand why so 
many people did not sooner realise what Kaiserism 
meant for us. But now, at last, the nation under- 
stands that we must fight on until this menace of 
military autocracy has vanished and that not until 
then will the world enjoy a lasting peace. 

Almost as soon as I was settled in New York I 
was drafted. Drafted by a public curiosity which 

276 



EN ROUTE HOME— KAISERISM IN AMERICA 

insisted on knowing something about Germany and 
the war. 

And so for me began a new life — that of a public 
speaker — I spoke first in New York at a lunch at 
the Chamber of Commerce — war had not then been 
declared and I was compelled to be careful — for 
even then there seemed a fear of Germany, a fool- 
ish desire to surrender all manhood to a fat neu- 
trality. 

On April 2nd came President Wilson's message 
demanding war. I was in the opera house that night. 
Between the acts extras appeared. I telephoned 
Swope of the World who confirmed the news. 
While I was receiving this information one of the 
directors of the Metropolitan Opera Company came 
in the room. I told him what had happened and 
asked if he was not going to do something — order 
the news read from the stage — for example, and 
the "Star Spangled Banner" played. He said, *'No, 
the opera company is neutral." 

I returned to the box where I was sitting and 
stepping to the front called on the house to cheer 
President Wilson. There was, for a moment, sur- 
prise at such unconventional action, but the whole 
house soon broke into cheers. 

Conventionalism was gone. 

The opera was DeKoven's ''Canterbury Pil- 
grims" and a few minutes after the curtain rose on 
the last act Frau Ober, a German singer, who was 
taking one of the principal parts, keeled over in a 
faint, — rage, perhaps, that the Yankees were at 

277 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

last daring to cheer, to assert themselves against 
the Kaiser ! 

As I spoke in Albany, Buffalo, Harrisburg, 
Trenton and Boston, in Philadelphia, Providence 
and many times in New York and other places, I 
noted always an eagerness to learn about Ger- 
many, the war and foreign affairs. We Ameri- 
cans had travelled, but not with our eyes open — 
"seeing, we saw not." 

The first great, great question we faced was that 
of universal service for the war — or the selective 
draft — again how farsighted our President then 
proved himself. What would be our situation now 
if we had tried to go to war under the volunteer 
system? This question once solved, our President 
led us with a breadth of vision, an efficiency, and 
on a scale commensurate with the size of the un- 
dertaking in which we at last had become partners. 

Perhaps we are a little over indulgent, however, 
in the treatment of the German enemy alien within 
our gates. No American singer or musician could 
travel about Germany at will, unwatched by the 
police, collecting money from Americans to be used 
in propaganda, or things much worse, against 
America. Americans in Germany are compelled 
to report twice daily to the poHce and cannot leave 
their homes at night. November 17, 19 17 — seven 
months after we went to war with Germany — I 
met Hugo Schmidt, a director of the Deutsche 
Bank, riding in Central Park. He lived at the Ger- 
man Club, saw whom he liked and only reported 

278 



EN ROUTE HOME— KAISERISM IN AMERICA 

to the police when he changed his residence. In 
January 191 8, he was finally interned. 

Long before our break with Germany, American 
consuls and officials were insulted in the street and 
in opera houses because they made use of their own 
language, not at all because they were taken for 
British for every one knew that all British had been 
interned. 

The wife of our naval attache attended a recep- 
tion presided over by a German admiral's wife. 
She was presented to this high personage by the 
wife of a German naval officer, who, in making 
the presentation, spoke in English. The admiral's 
wife rebuked both the wife of our attache and the 
officer's wife for daring to talk English. I am 
thankful to say that Mrs. Gherardi immediately 
left the house to receive later the officially ordered 
apologies of the admiral's wife. 

And while Americans did not dare use their own 
language in Berlin in time of peace between the 
two countries yet after the outbreak of war, news- 
papers in the United States, printed in German, 
owned by Germans and German sympathisers, 
dared to attack America and her President. 

The autocracy always hope to divide us, to make 
of us a Russia, torn by Maximalists and Minimal- 
ists, by Militarists and Bolsheviki and, conse- 
quently, impotent for war. 

In travelling through the United States in August 
and September of 1917, although I was on private 
business, I made speeches in many cities, such as 
Minneapolis, and Helena, Billings, Butte and Mis- 

279 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

soula in Montana, Spokane, Seattle and Tacoma in 
Washington, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco and 
surrounding country, Los Angeles, San Diego and 
Pasadena and then Milwaukee, Chicago and Cleve- 
land. In all this territory I found great enthusi- 
asm, great patriotism and a sincere desire to learn 
about Germany and the war. But I found every- 
where also the trail of Germany's poisonous propa- 
ganda. 

The great majority of our citizens of German- 
American descent have been splendidly loyal to their 
country in this crisis of its history. But the fact 
must be faced that there are those who, for some 
unknown reason, still sympathise with the German 
Kaiser in his war of aggression. 

More unfortunately there are politicians in 
America who seek the votes of those disaffected, 
and approach treason in doing so. In all the his- 
tory of sordid politics, there is nothing more nau- 
seating 'than the effort of these cheap politicians 
thus to gratify their personal ambitions. 

Their shameful identity is known to all. A gen- 
eration from now their own descendants will be 
applying to the courts for a change of name. 

If, when the test comes, it is found that the votes 
of these disaffected citizens count for something in 
our elections, we must find some means to disen- 
franchise them rather than have our low politicians 
outbidding each other within the law in order to 
get these votes. 

Have we not had examples enough from Russia 

280 



EN ROUTE HOME— KAISERISM IN AMERICA 

of what the slimy bribe and the snaky propaganda 
can do? 

In Chicago, where one Thompson is Mayor, 
there is a censorship of moving picture films. The 
chief censor is Major Funkhouser. When I was 
in Los Angeles, at the end of September, like all 
strangers there, I visited movie-land to see the pic- 
tures made. 

At the house of my college chum. Dr. Walter 
J. Barlow, I met the beautiful and celebrated Mary 
Pickford. 

In conversation she told me about Major Funk- 
houser, and how he had refused an exhibition per- 
mit for one of her films called "The Little Ameri- 
can." Curious to see the film rejected by Chicago 
officialdom, I asked Miss Pickford if she would 
have it run ofif for my benefit. I could see nothing 
in the film that could hurt the susceptibilities of 
any except the Germans with whom we are now 
engaged in war! 

Later the Fox Film Company informed me that 
their film called ''The Spy" and which deals with 
the adventures of an American who is supposed 
to go to Germany to get a list of German spies and 
agents in America, was refused the right of ex- 
hibition in Chicago by this same Major Funk- 
houser. In this case the Fox Company appealed in 
the courts and obtained from Judge Alschuler an 
injunction preventing any one from interfering 
with the exhibition of this film. The decision of 
Judge Alschuler was affirmed on appeal. 

And yet the mass of the people in Chicago are 

281 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

splendidly patriotic as the record of Chicago for 
enlistment and Red Cross and Liberty Loan shows. 

When I spoke in the great Medinah Temple un- 
der the auspices of the Hamilton Club, on October 
twenty-second, I was able to show to the audience 
two German text-books used in the Chicago public 
schools, stamped with the royal arms of Prussia. 
The books had been approved by Ella Flagg Young, 
Superintendent of Schools, in 19 14. 

These books were furnished me by my friend, 
Anthony Czarnecki of the Chicago Daily Nezvs 
whom I first met in Berlin where he came to do 
most excellent work for his paper. In one of these 
books is printed the German patriotic song, The 
Watch on the Rhine ("Die Wacht am Rhein"). 
What a howl there would have been if some public 
school superintendent had selected for the schools 
under her jurisdiction a text-book of English litera- 
ture with the royal arms of England stamped on 
the cover and "Rule Britannia" prominently dis- 
played inside ! 

These text-books were cleverly compiled to im- 
press children at a youthful age with a favourable 
idea of kings and emperors. In one of these was 
an anecdote about Frederick the Great and a miller, 
and in another, one about the Emperor Charle- 
magne and the scholar, of course, making Frederick 
and Charlemagne appear as good kindly people, and 
giving the impression that all kings and emperors 
are beneficent beings. But no word is there in these 
books quoting the present German Emperor's state- 
ment in which he puts Frederick in the same class as 

282 



EN ROUTE HOME— KAISERISM IN AMERICA 

the four other bloody conquerors of history, Alex- 
ander, Julius Csesar, Theodoric and Napoleon, and 
says that where they failed in their dreams of world 
conquest, his mailed fist will succeed. Why was not 
Frederick the Great's statement printed in these 
books, his admission that he engaged upon the Seven 
Years' War ''in order to be talked about" ? 

These books contained quotations from Goethe. 
Why did they not contain Goethe's statement, 
"Amerika, du hast es besser."? (America, you are 
better off). Or his prophecy about the Prussians, 
"The Prussian was born a brute, and civilisation 
will make him ferocious." 

The only foreign language taught in the gram- 
mar schools of Chicago is German. Parents are 
compelled to sign a statement in which they answer 
the question as to whether they wish their children 
to be taught German or not. 

See how subtle this is! Doubtless if a Teuton 
parent answers that he does not desire to have his 
children taught German the paid agents of the Ger- 
man propaganda stir up feeling against these Ger- 
mans who have dared to refuse to have their chil- 
dren taught the language of the fatherland. 

And when a parent has once elected that his chil- 
dren shall be taught German, not the principal of 
the school, not the district superintendent, but only 
the head of all the Chicago school system, on the 
application of the parent, can excuse the child, dur- 
ing his or her school course, from further study of 
German. 

Worst of all, however, is the Chicago official 

283 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

school speller, a book printed under the direction 
and compiled by the school authorities of Chicago. 
In this speller there is just one piece of reading mat- 
ter and that a fulsome eulogy of the present Ger- 
man Emperor. 

This is an account of an alleged incident of the 
Kaiser's school days and the author concludes that 
the facts set forth (probably untrue) show that the 
Kaiser as a boy had the "root of a fine character in 
him," possessed "that chivalrous sense of fair play 
which is the nearest thing to a religion" in boys of 
that age and hated "meanness and favouritism." 
The Chicago Board of Education end the eulogy by 
stating, "There is in him a fundamental bent to- 
ward what is clean, manly and aboveboard." 

"Chivalrous sense of fair play and hates mean- 
ness!" "Fundamental bent toward what is clean, 
manly and aboveboard!" How about the enslave- 
ment of women and girls in France, the use of poi- 
son gas, the deportations of the Belgians, the sink- 
ing of the Lusitania and the killing of women and 
babies by Zeppelins and submarines. — Sickening! 

A number of the books used in the public schools 
of New York have so much in them favourable to 
kings and emperors, have so much of German pa- 
triotism and fatherland, that the hand of the prop- 
agandist must have had something to do with the 
adoption of these books. 

Of course, it is only in the books of the advanced 
courses that propaganda appears. It is not possi- 
ble, however clever the author, to incorporate much 
propaganda in simple exercises, or in such sen- 

284 



EN ROUTE HOME— KAISERISM IN AMERICA 

tences as "Have you seen the sister of my cousin's 
wife?" or "The bird is waiting in the blacksmith 
shop on account of the rain." 

But the following extracts from books used in 
the public schools of New York should not be with- 
out interest to those who know that the impressions 
given to persons under the age of sixteen or seven- 
teen are the impressions that often persist through 
life. 

For instance in the "Deutscher Lehrgang, First 
Year," by E. Prokosch of the University of Texas, 
"Die Wacht am Rhein" is printed with music. 

I should be very much surprised to hear that the 
"Star Spangled Banner," with music, had ever been 
printed in any school book in Germany. 

On page 109, of this book, there is an article in 
German entitled, "The German Constitution." It 
begins with the sentence, "The German Empire is 
a union State like the United States of America." 
How far the German Empire is from the United 
States of America in political liberty can be an- 
swered by any German immigrant or Jewish mer- 
chant who has voted under the circle system or 
been denied access to court because of his religion ! 

The second paragraph commences with the sen- 
tence, "The German Kaiser is not monarch of the 
Empire. He only is President of the Union." I 
am quite sure that if the Kaiser ever saw this sen- 
tence he would very soon convince the author that 
he was something more than the President. The 
article continues: 

"He is the over-commander of the army. 

285 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Through him is war declared and peace made, but 
he can declare war only with the consent of the 
Bundesrath." 

The Bundesrath had nothing to say about the 
commencement of this war. They never voted on 
the question. The German Constitution, as a mat- 
ter of fact, gives the Kaiser the right to declare war 
himself, providing that the war is a defensive war. 
In 1914, the Kaiser first announced, without pre- 
senting any evidence, that Germany had been at- 
tacked, and then declared war on the strength of 
this statement, never since substantiated. 

The text book writer adds : ''The people are rep- 
resented in the Reichstag as the American people 
are represented in Congress." If the American peo- 
ple were represented in Congress under the same 
unfair representation from which the German peo- 
ple suffer, there would soon be a revolution in this 
country. The districts which elect members to 
the Reichstag have not been changed since 1872, 
so that millions of Germans are not represented at 
all in the Reichstag. 

"Professor" Prokosch remarks: ''The Bundes- 
rath is like the Senate of the United States. It 
is composed of representatives of the particular 
States." 

Of course, the only difference is that our Sena- 
tors are elected by the people and the members of 
the Bundesrath are appointed by the ruling kings 
and princes of the German states and vote exactly 
as they are told by these rulers. 

This is only to show how carelessly, if not ma- 

286 



EN ROUTE HOME— KAISERISM IN AJVIERICA 

liclously, Professor E. Prokosch of the University 
of Texas and his helper, C. M. Purin of the State 
Normal School at Milwaukee, have handled the 
German Constitution, doubtless to give the impres- 
sion to school children in America that the German 
empire instead of being a despotic autocracy, is 
ruled in very much the same manner as our own re- 
public. 

Frederick the Great, who admitted that he went 
to war "in order to be talked about," who boasted 
that he had only one cook and a hundred spies, who 
was one of the most tyrannical kings of all history, 
has a whole book dedicated to him for use in the 
Public Schools of New York. Frederick Betz, head 
of the Department of Modern Languages in the 
East High School of Rochester, New York, is the 
author of a book called, ''About a Great King and 
Others." The author in the preface states that the 
anecdotes which he prints do not narrate the story 
of the lives of these famous Germans, but, neverthe- 
less, give glimpses of what they did and may help to 
show why the Germans held them in such high es- 
teem. The book contains four anecdotes about 
King Frederick William I, the father of Frederick 
the Great, a villainous king who was prevented from 
executing his own son only by the protests of the 
other kings of Europe. 

Then follow forty-nine anecdotes about Freder- 
ick the Great, all of them, of course, revealing him 
as a good king and a popular character ; eight anec- 
dotes about Beethoven, Mozart, Schiller, and Les- 
sing, and the remainder of the book is made up of 

287 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

one anecdote about Queen Louise, one about Field 
Marshal Bliicher, eighteen anecdotes about Bis- 
marck, three about the Emperor William I, and 
three about the present Emperor. 

The booklet entitled "German Poems for Memor- 
izing," with music to some of the poems, edited by 
Oscar Burkhard, Assistant Professor of German 
in the University of Minnesota, contains a number 
of German patriotic poems and prints the 'Wacht 
am Rhein" twice, once in the text and once with 
music. "Deutschland iiber Alles" is printed twice 
in the same way. 

I should like to be present at the trial in the secret 
court in Germany of a schoolmaster who dared to 
teach his pupils to sing the "Star Spangled Ban- 
ner" or the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Pro- 
kosch and Purin seem to be popular with the Board 
of Education, for they are represented by another 
book called "Conversation and Reading Book," 
which is full of stories and patriotic anecdotes. 
Charlemagne, Barbarossa and Frederick the Great 
are all exhibited as great men to be emulated. 
There is a picture of the coronation of Charlemagne 
which represents the Pope about to place the iron 
crown on Charlemagne's head while the Deity, at- 
tended by seraphim and cherubim, floating on clouds 
overhead, lends his presence to the ceremony; only 
another example of how the Prussians believe that 
God is the tribal Deity of their nation who takes 
a personal kiterest in all their ceremonies and wars. 

A long article appears in these books entitled, 
"The Germans in the United States." It implies 

288 



EN ROUTE HOME— KAISERISM IN AMERICA 

that William Penn had no success until he called in 
Dr. Daniel Pastorius of Frankfort. Among the 
bits of history set forth the author alleges that, in 
1760, there were more than a hundred thousand 
Germans in Pennsylvania, and that on account of 
their importance in this State it was proposed to 
make German the official language, the proposition 
being beaten by only one vote! The article says 
further: "The only reason why the contentious 
Puritans succeeded in making English the language 
of the country and in impressing their character on 
its politics was because the German immigrants 
were poor, downtrodden people." 

But it is when we come to the description of the 
War of the Revolution and other wars that the 
authors really turn loose. We learn that Wash- 
ington's bodyguard was composed of Germans and 
that Baron von Steuben apparently reorganised 
the American army, so that Washington moved 
Congress to name General von Steuben, Inspector 
General, and to make his position almost independ- 
ent. The writers say that the siege of Yorktown 
and surrender of the English army was in a great 
part the work of Steuben. 

I think that other historians might have some- 
thing to say on this subject. The authors fail to 
tell that Baron von Steuben, a soldier of fortune, 
who sold his services to the highest bidder, was 
hired to join the American army by a Frenchman, 
Beaumarchais, who sympathised with the United 
States. 

Attention is also called to the fact that 190,000 

289 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Germans fought against the South and the authors 
observe in conclusion : 

"If to-day the United States of America is a 
power of world political importance, if its industry, agri- 
culture and commerce betoken a powerful danger com- 
mercially over the old Europe, so have they to thank the 
political power and the methodical perseverance of the 
Anglo-Saxon immigrants from England as well as the 
industry, the bravery and the cheerfulness of the Ger- 
mans who have placed themselves politically in the serv- 
ice of the Anglo Saxons." 

It is noteworthy that of the four books I have 
set forth as examples, three apparently have been 
produced since the commencement of the World 
War. 

Does not all this show the hand of the German 
propaganda — the same hand which sends from Ber- 
lin every 3^ear a large sum of money to the German 
colonists in the southern states of Brazil in order 
that the German schools may be maintained there, 
German ideas inculcated and the population pre- 
vented from losing its German identity? 

From the time of the visit of Prince Henry to 
this country the German system of propaganda has 
been at work smoothing out traditional differences 
and feuds between Germans and doing its best to 
make Germans from Bavaria, Saxony and Han- 
over and Wiirttemberg, and Hesse forget that their 
countries were conquered by the Prussians in 1866. 

When Prince Henry was here on his trip through 
the country he spent very little time with Ameri- 

290 



EN ROUTE HOME— KAISERISM IN MIERICA 

cans. He was chiefly occupied with German- 
Americans and German-American Societies. 

Prince Henry's visit to the United States in 1902 
was primarily to attend the christening of the rac- 
ing yacht of the Emperor which was being built in 
this country. One of the members of his suite was 
von Tirpitz, then secretary of state of the German 
Navy. After having been officially received by 
President Roosevelt he visited Annapolis, Brook- 
lyn Navy Yard and West Point and then toured 
the middle west stopping at twenty cities between 
New York and St. Louis. During the entire trip 
he continually asked questions of all the delegates 
sent with him by the U. S. Government, such as 
for instance facts about the shops at Altoona, the 
coal mines, farms, factories and handsome women ! 

At every station he was met by the Mayor of 
the city and the German Societies, and greeted 
with German music. The Deutscher Kriege Ve- 
rein, a German Society consisting of military 
veterans, always had a place of honour in the 
celebrations. In many cities the German-Amer- 
ican citizens gave the Prince albums or sou- 
venirs in which were engraved pretty pledges of 
devotion to the Fatherland. For instance in Chi- 
cago, the German Roman Catholic Society pre- 
sented the following address: "The German Ro- 
man Catholic Staats-Verband of Illinois begs your 
Royal Highness to permit it to express its great 
joy for your visit to the United States and to as- 
sure your Royal Highness of its respect and re- 
gard.' 

291 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

"We extend to your Royal Highness our hearti- 
est greeting as the illustrious guest of this country 
and the envoy of the wise and noble ruler of our 
Fatherland, whom the world recognises and re- 
spects as prince of peace and as the representative 
of a great and mighty nation that by its own power 
has united its people and achieved its present prom- 
inent position among nations of the earth. 

"May the Almighty grant that the visit of your 
Royal Highness bear a rich fruit, that rulers and 
their people may join together and thereby pro- 
mote peace, harmony and good-will throughout the 
world ! May God grant this prayer !" 

Everywhere the Prince went he was surrounded' 
by German-American and German influences. In 
St. Louis, where the Prince spent about three and 
a half hours, the German- Americans gave him a 
great reception in the Grand Hall and lunch at the 
St. Louis Club which was attended by many Ger- 
mans. In Chicago, a reception was given after 
the Mayor's banquet, in the First Regiment Ar- 
mory, and attended by ten thousand Germans. The 
following day in Chicago he went to a large lunch- 
eon at the Germania Club. In Milwaukee the offi- 
cers of the Deutscher Kriegebund gave a reception 
at the Exposition where ten thousand German- 
Americans cheered the Prince, and also a luncheon 
at the Hotel Pfister where many German-Ameri- 
can officials were invited. 

The speeches throughout had the same tone, 
those of the German- Americans expressing their re- 

2Q2 



EN ROUTE HOME— KAISERISM IN AlVIERICA 

spect for the Fatherland and those of the Prince 
spurring on loyalty in the hearts of the German- 
Americans. The Prince's speech in the Armory 
in Chicago is quite typical. In reply to a speech 
made by a German- American, the Prince said: 

''Yoti have left your Fatherland, hut if you still 
have some love for the Fatherland then I ask you 
to give three cheers for the one who has sent me 
here as the representative of Prussia to bring this 
greeting — the German Bniperor and King of Prus- 
sia." 

In another speech which the Prince began with 
**Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Germans," he said: "I 
would like to say that the Germans in this country 
have done a great deal for the literature and science 
of this country and I hope they will continue in this 
good work." The whole attitude of the Prince 
seemed to be one of benevolence to his "Fellow- 
Germans" and personal interest in them. Wher- 
ever the Prince discovered a German wearing the 
Iron Cross in the crowd, he would ask an aide to 
bring the man up to him so that he could shake 
hands and converse with him. 

Talking with Prince Henry one day before the 
war he told me he regretted that on his trip to 
America he had seen so little of the Americans. 
He said: "You know the Ambassador kept me al- 
ways with the Germans and German Societies." I 
suppose the poor Prince did not himself know what 
was the real object of his visit. But undoubtedly 
his shrewd trip manager and the clever propa- 
gandists who accompanied him knew only too well. 

293 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

It is hard to understand why any German- 
Americans should take sides with German autoc- 
racy. There are many merchants of Frankfort 
and Hamburg and Bremen and the great industrial 
towns of Germany who do not approve of the cruel- 
ties practised in this war and many of these will 
leave Germany as soon as peace is concluded. 

Any one had a right to sympathise, to side with 
Germany, before our entrance into the war. But 
now what the lawyers call "the time of repentance" 
has gone by, there is no middle course and every 
citizen must declare himself American or be 
thought a traitor. 

It is hard to understand what the pro-Germans 
in our country want. They left Germany because 
of a lack of opportunity there, because of their dis- 
like for military service under Prussian conditions, 
because of the caste system which kept them under 
the heel of autocracy and because here every avenue 
of business, and social and political advancement 
is thrown wide open for them and their children. 
And I am quite sure that if one of these prosperous 
Germans were deprived of the money that he has 
won here, given back the rags and wooden shoes 
in which he landed and told that he was on his way 
to Germany, no wild animal in all the mountains 
and swamps of the United States would scratch and 
bite and kick and squawk more vigorously than 
he would. These German-Americans do not want 
to be sent back to their Kaiser and their fatherland ! 

Certainly we Americans will not stop the war 
nor surrender our rights nor invite the invasion of 

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EN ROUTE HOME— KAISERISM IN AMERICA 

our shores because of their stubborn devotion to a 
country which they were so glad to abandon. We 
must appeal to their sons and their daughters — to 
those who have become part and parcel of our na- 
tion, to see that these obstinate old codgers do not 
persist in an attitude which may end in creating a 
prejudice against those of German descent in 
America. 

Those of us who are of Scotch or Irish or Eng- 
lish descent can urge this with greater insistence 
because our ancestors were much nearer, in 1766, 
to the English fatherland, than German-Americans 
are to the German Empire and these ancestors did 
not hesitate in that year to turn against Great Brit- 
ain on a mere question of commerce — did not hesi- 
tate again, in 1812, to face Great Britain in arms 
on a question of sea rights; and on account of this 
we expect all those of German-American descent 
to stand unreservedly by their adopted country, — 
forced into war by an autocracy that not only mur 
dered our women and children in defiance of inter- 
national law and common humanity but which 
threatens, if successful in this war, to invade our 
shores. 

Do these stubborn German-Americans think 
that if a German force should occupy America 
their position would be any better than that of the 
other citizens of this country, that they would be 
put to rule over the rest of us and allowed to save 
their goods and houses from the indemnities that 
would be put upon this nation in case of our defeat? 

Let me tell them one thing and that is, if by any 

295 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

remote possibility the Germans did gain a foothold 
in this country through the aid of those of German 
descent here, before we, of other descent in this 
country submitted to German rule we would attend 
to every traitor ! 

We did not lure any citizens of foreign nations 
to our shores. They came here to escape serfdom 
and starvation and forced military service in an 
army where they could never be officers. We sent 
them no excursion tickets when they came here as 
half -starved peasants. We opened to them the 
doors of hospitality and of opportunity, and \vt do 
not propose that they shall pay us like the frozen 
snake in yEsop's fables. 

Some of our finest citizens came from Germany 
in 1848 after the failure of the revolution against 
autocracy. Where do you think that General Siegel 
and Carl Schurz would stand if they were alive 
to-day? 

The daughter of General Siegel has answered in 
giving her son, on whom she was dependent, to the 
army of the United States, saying, ''His grand- 
father fought under Lincoln for liberty and he 
must take his place to-day in the great fight for 
freedom." 

We are too good-natured, too soft, too easy in 
this country. Our great ex-President, that splen- 
did American and patriot, Theodore Roosevelt, said 
not long ago of one of our United States Senators, 
if that Senator were a German and acted in Ger- 
many the way he acted in America as an American 
he would be put at digging a trench. I do not like 

296 



EN ROUTE HOME— KAISERISM IN AMERICA 

to differ with Theodore Roosevelt, but from my 
knowledge of German conditions during this war, 
I know that if this Senator acted as a German in 
Germany as he has been acting as an American in 
America, he would not be put by the Germans at 
digging a trench but that with the ten bullets of a 
firing squad in his chest he would be filling one ! 

Are these Germans in America imbued with the 
belief that the German Kaiser has been sent by 
heaven to rule the German Empire and bend the 
world under German "Kultur"? President Wil- 
son, in one of his notes in 1916, referred to the Ger- 
man government as "the mouthpiece of the peo- 
ple." A German conservative newspaper, I think 
the Tages Zeitung, commenting upon this said that 
*'the German Emperor is not our 'mouthpiece' but 
our truly beloved Emperor sent to us by God." 

Does the German-American ever stop to consider 
how the Hohenzollerns obtained possession of the 
Mark of Brandenburg, the basis of modern Prus- 
sia? Five hundred years ago the Hohenzollerns 
were Counts of Nuremberg, then as now a rich 
trading city. Sigismund III wanted ready money 
and this was advanced by the Hohenzollerns, 
Counts of Nuremberg, on the security of the mark 
of Brandenburg pledged as collateral to the loan 
which totalled only $100,000. Later the Counts of 
Neuremberg foreclosed their mortgage and took 
possession of the Mark of Brandenburg and have 
held it ever since. 

Does a German-American in this country who 
has placed a mortgage on his house think when he 

297 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

fails to pay the interest or principal of the mort- 
gage that the man who has sold him out was sent 
by God? 

This calls to mind one of the great failures of 
the war — the failure of religion in the German Em- 
pire. I attended a great service, in the Protestant 
cathedral of Berlin, held to celebrate the five hun- 
dredth anniversary of the occasion when the first 
Hohenzollern, having foreclosed his mortgage, en- 
tered into possession of Brandenburg. The Em- 
peror sat in an elevated gallery and across the great 
cathedral Dr. Dryander, the Court preacher, 
mounted the pulpit to deliver an eulogy on the 
Hohenzollern rule and the Hohenzollerns. 

What an opportunity then if Dr. Dryander, lift- 
ing an accusing finger, had spoken of the rivers of 
innocent blood sacrificed to the Prussian Moloch of 
conquest, if he had demanded in the name of Chris- 
tianity that the barbarities of Prussian rule should 
cease, that the Belgian workingmen, dragged from 
their homes to manufacture shells to be used against 
their own brothers, sons and fathers in Prussian 
factories, should be sent back; if he had demanded 
that the twenty thousand women and girls driven 
into worse than slavery from Lille and Tourcoing 
and Roubaix in the North of France should be 
given their freedom once more; if he had spoken 
of the whole nation of the Armenians, of the Sy- 
rians, of the Jews, massacred by the Turks while 
the German Generals in command of the Turkish 
armies stood by; if he had denounced the invasion 
of Belgium, the breaking of treaties, the starvation 

298 



EN ROUTE HOME— KAISERISM IN AMERICA 

of Poland, the horrors of poisoned gas and the 
cruelties exercised upon those of the opposing 
armies unfortunate enough to become prisoners of 
the Germans. 

But no, Dr. Dryander droned on. No pastor 
in Germany has dared to risk his state-paid salary 
to stand up for Christianity and the right. 

The Prussians cannot get away from the belief 
that they have a sort of personal God who takes 
a direct and kindly interest in their destinies, espe- 
cially in the ordering of their bloody battles. Count- 
less sermons were preached through Germany dur- 
ing the war, but the most ridiculous was that of a 
Protestant pastor in Berlin early in the war. He 
announced the title of his sermon as, "Is God neu- 
tral?", and in his fourteenthly proved to his own 
satisfaction, that the Deity, abandoning neutrality, 
had declared Himself unequivocally for the suc- 
cess of German arms ! 



299 



CHAPTER XXII 

THAT INTEJRVIEW WITH THE) KAISER 

A FTER the appearance, in August, 19 17, in 
the Philadelphia Public Ledger and other 
newspapers in America and the Telegraph in Eng- 
land of the message of the Kaiser to President Wil- 
son, the official North German Gazette, evidently 
unaware of the fact that the original message of 
the Kaiser in his own hand was in my possession, 
published the following: 

"The London Daily Telegraph publishes from the 
memoirs of former Ambassador Gerard a telegram that 
His Majesty the Kaiser is alleged to have sent to Presi- 
dent Wilson on August 10, 1914, and in which the events 
before the participation of England in the present war 
are set forth. 

"We are, in these circumstances, in the position to 

GIVE THE ASSURANCE THAT A TELEGRAM OF THE KaISER 

of this nature does not exist. 

"It is correct that an audience was granted to Ambas- 
sador Gerard on August 10, 191 4, in order to give the 
opportunity to spread before His Majesty the peace 
mediation offer of President Wilson. 

"The personal message of President Wilson to the 
Kaiser runs as follows: As official head of one of the 
Powers which signed the Hague Convention, I feel ac- 
cording to Article HI of this Convention it is my right 

^00 



THAT INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER 

and my duty to declare to you in the spirit of the truest 
friendship that I would welcome every opportunity to 
act in the interest of the peace of Europe whether now 
or at another more fitting time.' . . . 

"This proposition came at a time when the opposing 
armies had already crossed the frontiers and when it 
seemed out of the question to halt the march of events. 

"His Majesty could, therefore, only transmit to the 
President his thanks for the mediation offered and to add 
thereto that it was too early for the mediation of a neu- 
tral Power, but that later the friendly proposition of 
President Wilson could be taken up again. 

"His Majesty, the Emperor, then talked for some tim^e 
with the American Ambassador and set forth to him sepa- 
rately the events which led to the outbreak of the war. 
Particularly did the Kaiser call attention to the equivocal 
and unloyal position of England which had destroyed the 
hope of a peaceful issue. 

"The setting forth by Ambassador Gerard in his mem- 
oirs seems to be a contradiction of this conversation. 

"If the press of enemy countries sees revelations in 
this that only shows that they are not acquainted with the 
German White Book which sets forth these events. 

"Possibly, during the interviews, the Emperor wrote 
down notes for the Ambassador, in order that the latter 
should not send anything incorrect to Washington. In 
this case we have to do only with certain notes to aid the 
memory of the Ambassador, not with a communication 
of the Emperor to President Wilson." 

The Tageblatt reprinted this lame and silly ex- 
planation in its issue of August 13, 1917, and com- 
plained that, although its correspondent at the 
Hague sent, on August 7, 19 17, this part of my 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

first book in a telegram, only on August ii, 
did the Government permit the delivery to the 
Tagehlatt of this story from the correspondent. 
Then the newspaper despatch had to be submitted 
to the Censorship officials who only released it for 
publication at midnight. The Tagehlatt says, "The 
form of the explanation which has now appeared 
in the North German Gazette can hardly be called 
very happy. What does this mean — 'possibly dur- 
ing the interview the Kaiser wrote down notes for 
the Ambassador in order that the latter should not 
send anything incorrect to Washington'? Now, 
after a week the occurrence must have been fath- 
omed and it was not necessary to make use of a 
'possibly.' Could Mr. Gerard consider these 'notes' 
in the handwriting of the Emperor as a draft for a 
telegram? And do these notes read, as a telegram 
of the Emperor to Wilson — as Mr. Gerard repeats 
them?" 

Does not the Tagehlatt article give a glimpse not 
only of how the newspapers of Germany are ham- 
pered and censored, but of the positively glorious 
incompetency of the Government officials who de- 
nied the existence of an original document in the 
Kaiser's own hand which the most elementary in- 
quiries in their own circle would have disclosed not 
only was in existence but in my possession? 

The redoubtable Reventlow writing in the Con- 
servative Tages Zeitimg commented as follows: 

"Kaiser William had possibly for his answer written 
down notes and given them to Gerard, but these were 

302 



THAT INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER 

only helps for Gerard's memory and it was not a ques- 
tion of a direct communication of the German Kaiser to 
the President. In accordance with the Gerard reports it 
now seems that nevertheless the Ambassador telegraphed 
the Imperial notes immediately and literally to Washing- 
ton. Mr. Gerard has, therefore, again in this respect 
hed, which is not surprising." 

Reventlow, of course, had not then seen the 
facsimile of the Kaiser's telegram which is headed 
in his own hand *'To the President, personally." 

Later the other German newspapers took the For- 
eign Office to task for making such a weak denial 
of an incontrovertible fact. And note the charm- 
ing parliamentary language of dear old Reventlow ! 

The article, which appeared in the Tages Zeitung 
of August 14th last, is interesting because Revent- 
low is without doubt the oracle and mouthpiece of 
the Prussian Conservatives. lie continues to at- 
tack me in this article but much of the attack is in 
reality praise, and, as we say in expressive slang, 
"every knock is a boost." The article continues: 

"It is very desirable to know if the former Chancellor 
was present at the audience; it is regrettably not incon- 
ceivable, but is a new proof of the incompetence of the 
Chancellor, that he did not, according to his duty, inform 
his Imperial Lord of the political personality and char- 
acter of a man like Gerard. 

"In the U-boat crisis Mr. Gerard had been able to 
play a quite decisive part. He was like Mr. von Beth- 
mann-Hollweg entirely of the view that the German 
Empire must give in to the demands of the United States 
and constantly showed himself wonderfully informed 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

about what step each inner circle would for the moment 
take. 

"The influence of Mr. Gerard is all the more a shame- 
ful and heavy reproach for the official leadership of Mr. 
von Bethmann-Hollweg, since this American Ambassa- 
dor, while an intriguer, was not a personality. 

"But when Gerard said anything, wished anything or 
threatened anything, that imported always a fear-excit- 
ing event, and he was finally sly enough to seize and use 
this halo to the limit. That a man like Gerard has been 
able through all these years to win and keep such a posi- 
tion and such an influence over German affairs is with- 
out example." 

But I must really put aside the halo vhich Re- 
ventlow so graciously hands me. While I w^as in- 
formed of what was going on, I certainly did my 
best to persuade Bethmann-Hollweg and von Jagow 
and Zimmermann as well as the Emperor and 
numberless others from defying America. If von 
Bethmann-Hollweg and any of the others were 
against ruthless submarine war, seeing that to 
adopt any other policy would bring America into 
this war, then they took this position because it 
seemed to them best for their country and history 
will prove them right. , 

Reventlow says further: 

"In the winter of 191 6- 17 one dreamed already of 
loans and imports from the United States during the 
peace negotiations. Mr. Gerard came back from America 
with alms for the wounded and the result of his subhme 
patience and of the sublime patience of Mr. von Beth- 

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THAT INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER 

mann-Hollweg was pictured by the Gerard celebration in 
Berlin. 

"Then came the decision for ruthless submarine war. 
The first time in his ambassadorial service was Mr. Ger- 
ard surprised and the men who entertained him were also 
surprised for they dreamed of and wished for quite other 
things. It is incorrect, if it has been stated, that at the 
time of the Gerard celebration ruthless submarine war 
had already been agreed on. That came later." 

But I did know that ruthless submarine war was 
coming, knew of the orders given, and this is proved 
not only by my reports which are still secret, but 
by what I told not only many people in America 
but several editors who with my full approval pub- 
lished articles showing this belief. 

I am obliged to Reventlow for what he says of 
me. I admire him as a powerful writer for whose 
ability I have a deep respect and perhaps if I were 
a Prussian Junker I would follow him as blindly 
and confidently as do the army and navy officers, 
the nobles, great and small, and the land-holding 
sqtiires of Prussia, to whom his writings are as 
seductive as the pipings of the Pied Piper to the 
townsfolk of Hamlin. 

Reventlow's charge of lying was made in the line 
of his duty as a Prussian Junker, according to the 
best traditions of Prussian government and diplo- 
macy but it is so thoroughly disproved and the au- 
thenticity of the Kaiser's telegram so universally 
admitted in Germany, even in official circles there, 
that I feel only sorrow for a Prussian nobleman 
and Junker and editor compelled by the exigencies 

305 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

of his position to make so ridiculous a statement. 

I think that the Germans just now are begin- 
ning to realise that I always told them the truth 
and treated them fairly, a procedure, I admit, far 
more disconcerting and disturbing to them than 
the most subtle wiles and moves of the old diplo- 
macy. 

Von Bethmann denied that the peace terms as 
set forth in my book were his (he did not deny 
that they are the terms of the Junkers) and criti- 
cised me for "unethically" publishing an account 
of my experiences in Germany. This is what he 
said: 

"In his published report of this particular conversation 
Mr. Gerard attributed utterances to me which may have 
been made in other quarters in Germany and to which 
he frequently referred in the progress of our conversa- 
tion but which were not my own. This applies especially 
to those references to Germany's alleged intentions to 
seize Liege and Namur, and of Germany's plans to take 
possession of the Belgian ports, the railways and to estab- 
lish military and commercial dominion over that country. 

"I never unfolded such German war aims to Mr. Ger- 
ard. In the course of my several conversations with him 
as also in our discussion last January I invariably re- 
ferred to my Reichstag speeches, in which I stated that 
Germany would exact positive guarantees that Belgian 
territory and politics would not in the future be exploited 
as a menacing factor against us. I did not make any 
statement as to the nature of these guarantees. 

"In the progress of our conversation Mr. Gerard sug- 
gested that the realisation of far-reaching aspirations in 
Belgium would give King Albert merely a sham author- 

306 



THAT INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER 

ity and asked whether it would not be better for Grermany 
to forego such plans and instead of them endeavour to 
acquire Liege which Mr. Gerard thought possible of 
achievement. 

"Perhaps this suggestion was a bait intended to pro- 
voke a reply from me. If so, the attempt failed. In 
all my discussions with the Ambassador on this subject 
I referred to my public utterances in which I emphasised 
that I was endeavouring to procure a peace that would 
permit us to live in cordial and neighbourly relations with 
Belgium. 

"Mr. Gerard's memory would seem also to have served 
him faultily when he wrote down what was said about 
Russia. He dealt but superficially with Germany's east- 
ern war aims, observing that the United States' interest 
in this direction was very limited and that Germany un- 
doubtedly would have a free hand there. For Roumania 
and Serbia he also revealed very slender sympathy. Mr. 
Gerard did not obtain out of my mouth any of the state- 
ments concerning these countries which he attributes to 
me. 

"When diplomats undertake to exploit their official 
career for journalistic purposes they are very apt to be 
misled into putting into mouths of foreign statesmen ut- 
terances which either are the creation of an ample im- 
agination or are based on faulty memory. Discussion of 
political opinions is bound to be transitory and fleeting. 

"You Americans are impetuous people. You do not 
seem to permit even your retiring diplomats to observe 
the traditional silences nor have you the patience to abide 
the post mortem publication of their memoirs. Sir Ed- 
ward Goschen (former British Ambassador to Germany 
and Austria) or Jules Cambon (former French Ambas- 
sador to Germany, the United States and Spain) prob- 
ably could excel Mr. Gerard in revelations of entertain- 

307 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

ing diplomatic history and gossip. Count von Bernstorfif, 
former Ambassador to the United States, too, I imagine 
might startle us with a diary of his Washington experi- 
ences. 

"In Europe, however, it was seen that publication of 
such matters was best postponed by common consent to 
a later period when judgments are both calm and more 
mature. Mr. Gerard, however, may hold the special li- 
cense conferred by shirtsleeve diplomacy, as you call it, 
and I shall not dispute his prerogatives. But he must not 
give his imagination the free rein." 

And this was my answer: published in the New 
York Times for September 2, 1917: 

"Dr. Hollweg apparently did not have the exact copy 
of my articles for if he had read them he would have 
seen clearly that I said the peace terms described were 
the German peace terms and not the opinions of the 
Chancellor. Dr. Hollweg said he himself was subject to 
the rule of the military party of Germany and could not 
follow his own desires. 

"In the second place, Dr. Hollweg admits that the 
German government intended to exact guarantees from 
Belgium and makes the admission himself after the in- 
terview in which he so sharply criticises me. 

"Thirdly, I ask if those terms as cited are not the Ger- 
man peace terms, then what are the German peace terms ? 

'*Dr. Hollweg gives nothing different from these and 
so it might be assumed they are the German terms after 
all. I consider it a matter of great regret that the Ger- 
man government put Dr. Hollweg out of office and I feel 
that personally he is bitterly opposed to the ruthless sub- 
marine warfare of the German government and that he 

308 



THAT INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER 

only refrained from resigning his office out of deference 
to the wishes of Emperor Wiihelm. 

"I presume he was put out because his ideals were too 
liberal for the German authorities to endure. This lib- 
erality is shown in the interview. I am sorry to take 
issue with Dr. Hollweg on this subject because I have a 
great admiration for him and I think he is a fine old 
fellow. 

"The old-time diplomacy, which Dr. Hollweg advo- 
cated, has succeeded in plunging almost the whole world 
into the bloodiest war of history. When the people of a 
nation know what is going on in the seats of government 
such wars cannot happen. 

"I do not believe in backstairs diplomacy any more 
than Dr. Hollweg. I believe the people of a nation are 
entitled to know what is going on. This German diplo- 
macy may be all right in a monarchy of the most limited 
type but it will not go at all in a modern democracy. 

"As to the ethics of publishing my memoirs now, I 
pass over the obvious repartee that to hear a German 
speak of ethics borders on the ludicrous and especially 
the man who openly in the Reichstag announced that 
necessity knows no law and that the German troops were 
at that moment deliberately violating the neutrality of 
Belgium. 

"But I believe that the old style diplomacy in the dark 
caused this war. Of course, it is hard for a German ex- 
official to conceive that the people have a right to be en- 
lightened about this awful calamity. But I hope one of 
the results of this war will be the end of backstairs diplo- 
macy. When the Germans with the Chancellor's ap- 
proval violated the usage of all nations and times and 
kept me as a hostage after I had demanded my passports, 
I think to talk of ethics comes with a bad grace from the 
German side." 

309 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Understand that Bethmann-Hollweg is not a bad 
man, but for one who openly announced that ne- 
cessity knows no law and defended the invasion 
of Belgium, failed to stop the cruelties of the prison 
camps and gave official, if not private, consent to the 
murder of women and babies not only on the high 
seas but in undefended towns, to talk of ethics be- 
cause I dared to tell the world what was happening 
in Germany is more than ridiculous. It verges on 
the ludicrous — but why attack poor Bethmann? 
Opportunity knocked at his door, but the want of a 
backbone prevented his becoming a great figure. 

History will laud him for opposing ruthless sul5- 
marine war so long, but will blame him for weakly 
yielding in the end. As for the ''ethics," I have 
been careful to give only official conversations witK 
the Emperor, interesting as the others are, and 
never shall disclose my private conversations witK 
Bethmann, von Jagow, Zimmermann and others, 
including my talks with Bethmann and Zimmer- 
mann on the day I left Germany, because it was 
understood that these conversations should never 
be disclosed whatever happened. 

And as time goes on more and more do I believe 
that history will vindicate von Jagow and teach the 
Emperor and the people of Germany that a faithful 
and skilful servant should never be sacrificed to 
the intrigues of a few gossiping politicians. It is 
part of the strength of President Wilson that he 
backs up his officials and refuses to listen even to 
widespread popular clamour for their heads. It 
was the business of von Jagow to conduct the For- 

310 



THAT INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER 

eign policy of Germany, but the intriguers de- 
manded his removal because he was too occupied 
to waste time talking to amateur politicians, and be- 
cause his voice did not charm the Reichstag. 



5" 



CHAPTER XXIII 
THE Future; kaiser — thi: crown prince and his 

BROTHERS 

¥N a country where the supreme power swings 
''■ between the Emperor and the impersonal Gen- 
eral Staff, all are interested, since even an Emperor 
is mortal, in learning something about the heir who 
succeeds in case of death. And we who .face with 
the rest of the world the forces of Kaiser ism desire 
to know about this heir. 

The Crown Prince is about five feet nine, 
blond and slim. In fact, one of his weak- 
nesses is his pride in an undeniably small waist 
which he pinches and his characteristic pose is with 
one foot thrown forward and one hand at the waist, 
elbow out and waist pressed in. He is well built, 
his face much better looking than his photographs 
show, nose rather long and eyes very keen and 
observing. Possessed of a great youthfulness of 
manner and a boyish liveliness and interest in life, 
his traits are somewhat American rather than Ger- 
man. He is a good sportsman and excels at many 
sports, is proud of his trophies but not afraid to 
meet other men in contest for them. 

His manners are open and engaging and be- 
cause of this he is very popular in Germany. Un- 

312 



THE FUTURE KAISER— THE CROWN PRINC© 

like his father on whom a pretty woman makes no 
impression whatever, he is a great admirer of fe- 
male beauty, so much so that when he is playing 
tennis, for example, if there is a good looking girl 
watching he can hardly keep his eye on the game. 
This weakness for the feminine has been the foun- 
dation for countless stories linking his name with 
that of various women, in all countries and of all 
classes of life, but personally, I think these rumours 
are untrue and that he is fond of his lovely wife, 
who is not in the least disturbed by his frank and 
open admiration of other members of the fair sex. 
A brood of strong, good-looking children have been 
born to the Crown Prince and Crown Princess. 

A Prince so fond of a good time, one who loves 
dancing and racing, hunting and shooting, with a 
shrewd eye and cool head, might make an ideal 
king, but the one dark shadow in the background 
is the Crown Prince's real love for war. From his 
seat in the Royal Box in the Reichstag, he has ap- 
plauded violently and ostentatiously utterances 
looking toward war: he had made himself the head 
of the war party, and the Militarists look to him 
as their chief. The great danger is that if this war 
ends in the defeat of Germany without the democ- 
ratisation of Germany then the Crown Prince will 
lead the party of revenge, of preparation for war, 
and if the war ends in what the Germans can call 
a success or ends in a draw (which means German 
success) then the Crown Prince and the Militarists, 
crying that the military system has been justified, 
will seek new excuses to enter once more on a war 

313 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

of conquest. All paths or speculations turn to one 
gate; if the German people continue slavishly to 
leave the power to drive them into war in the hands 
of the Crown Prince, or the Emperor, or the Gen- 
eral Staff, there will be no prospect of such a world 
peace as can justify a universal disarmament. Ab- 
solute monarchs and Emperors and Crown Princes 
and their attendant nobles, all spell war. They 
are the products of war and they can only continue 
to rule if the desire for war animates their people. 

While the Crown Prince has not set himself in 
direct opposition to his father or at any rate taken a 
part in public affairs with the view either to force 
his father's hand or take a dominant political part, 
nevertheless he has allowed no occasion to pass 
when he could encourage the army and war party 
even if this brought him into conflict with the pol- 
icy of the Emperor, and so there have been periods 
of coolness between the Emperor and the Crown 
Prince son. 

Thus after one scene in the Reichstag when the 
Crown Prince applauded those in favour of ag- 
gression it was reported that he was banished to 
Dantzig. At any rate during the winter of 1913-14 
the Crown Prince and his family were at Dantzig, 
the headquarters of the regiment he commands, 
the famous "Death's Head Hussars." 

Some say that it is a tradition in the Hohenzol- 
lern family for the Crown Prince to appear to op- 
pose the King. Then, when the King dies, the 
Crown Prince enjoys a certain popularity in the 
first years of his rule from those who have been 

3H 



THE FUTURE KAISER— THE CROWN PRINCE 

against the Government, and by the time this popu- 
larity has waned the new ruler is firmly seated on 
the throne 

The Crown Prince, born in 1882, will be thirty- 
five in May next. His military education began 
long before he was ten years old. In accordance 
with Hohenzollern custom, on his tenth birthday, 
he became an officer of the ist Regiment of Foot 
Guards and on this birthday was introduced to the 
other officers and took part in a regimental dinner. 
Before this great event he had learned enough of 
military drill and usages to carry himself as an of- 
ficer. 

In 1895, he and his brother Eitel entered as 
cadets at Ploen in Schwerin, where they were sub- 
jected to very strict discipline. After leaving Ploen 
the Crown Prince entered Bonn University, and 
there became a member of the "Borussia" student 
corps. 

I never heard that he took part in the corps duels. 
His face is not scarred, so I imagine as heir to the 
throne he was excused from a custom in which 
other corps members are compelled by public senti- 
ment to take part. From photographs I have seen 
and from what I have heard I believe that the 
Crown Prince entered cheerfully into the student 
life of the place and lived on terms of college equal- 
ity with his brothers of the "Borussia" corps. 
These corps members, however, hold themselves 
aloof from other students. 

The Crown Prince attended the Technical High 
School of Charlottenburg, that large building just 

315 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

across the canal which separates Berlin from Char- 
lottenburg. Here he gained some knowledge of ma- 
chinery, chemistry, etc. In 1909, he went to work in 
the Ministry of the Interior, where he learned 
something of government administration, how to 
manage the constabulary and their activities, — 
something quite necessary for an absolute ruler in 
a country where every citizen's acts is noted in the 
copy books of the police. 

Meantime, his military activities continued. He 
was gradually promoted and finally, in 191 1, be- 
came Colonel in command of the Dantzig Black 
Hussars. This regiment owes its black uniform 
and white death's heads to the thrift of Friedrich 
II who utilised the black funeral hangings at the 
elaborate funeral of his father to make uniforms 
for this regiment. It has been in existence about 
175 years. The white death's heads and bones which 
appeared in the funeral trappings were used to 
make ornaments for the front of the regimental 
headgear. 

While stationed at Dantzig the Prince was 
taught agriculture so as to understand the needs 
of the Prussian Junkers. He even studied the 
methods of brewing beer in the Dantzig brewery. 
His education has been strenuous. He has not been 
coddled or spoiled and is far better fitted for the 
battle of life than most graduates of our colleges. 

The father of the Crown Princess was a Grand 
Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and her mother a 
Russian Grand Duchess. In appearance the Crown 
Princess is very attractive, her face rather Russian, 

316 




THE CROWN PRINCE AND CROWN PRINCESS. FROM A 
PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN THEIR PALACE ON THE 
NIGHT OF A FANCY DRESS BALL. THE CROWN 
PRINCESS IS IN RUSSIAN COSTUME, AND THE 
CROWN PRINCE WEARS THE UNIFORM OF ONE 
HUNDRED YEARS AGO OF HIS REGIMENT, THE 
DE.\TH's HEAD HUSSARS 



THE FUTURE KAISER— THE CROWN PRINCE 

with an expression of good nature and cleverness. 
Although the Crown Prince is tall (about five feet 
ten), the Crown Princess overtops him, and on oc- 
casions when they appear together she wears shoes 
with very low heels and keeps her head bowed. 

The marriage took place in 1905 and was un- 
doubtedly a love match, the young couple having 
met in 1904 and become devotedly attached to 
each other. 

There is only one defect in the character of the 
Crown Prince and that is his fondness for war, his 
regard for war not as a horror, but as a necessity, 
an honourable and desirable state. 

I have long been apprehensive that when he came 
to the throne the world might again be hurried into 
a universal conflict and that vast military prepara- 
tions would burden every State. 

The Crown Prince and I often talked over shoot- 
ing in various parts of the world. He wishes to 
see America and especially to kill game in Alaska 
where the heavily horned heads and enormous bears 
make such magnificent trophies. When I told him 
once how my friend, Paul Rainey, had killed sev- 
enty-four lions in Africa he could talk of nothing 
else at that interview. 

The Crown Prince has been pictured as a liber- 
tine and a pillager. His face has been caricatured 
so often that people have the cartooned impression 
of him and believe him to be a sort of monstrous 
idiot. 

On the contrary, he is a good sport, a clever man, 
a charming companion, but the shadow of military 

317 



FACE TO FACE WYj;}! KAISERISM 

ambition hangs over all and I doubt if the effect of 
his infernal military education, commencing when 
he was a child, can be entirely removed. 

If some day he learns the idiocy of war, if he 
recognises that the world has progressed, and al- 
lows the people some share in their own govern- 
ment, he will make a splendid constitutional ruler 
of Prussia and the German Empire. 

Should the German people fail to take unto them- 
selves the war-making power, they will, before long, 
be decimated again for the amusement of the 
Crown Prince, or as he once put it, "for his fun." 

The favourite son of the Kaiser is presumed to 
be Prince Eitel Friedrich. A large, fat, healthy, 
good natured young man, married to the daughter 
of the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, a rather pretty 
but discontented looking Princess. It is said of him 
that he has shown not only great bravery in this 
war but real military capacity. Ridiculous scan- 
dals have been circulated about him in Berlin, but 
this is only the usual gossip circulated about per- 
sons in prominent positions. 

Adalbert, the sailor Prince, is now married to a 
German Princess. He is the best looking of the 
Kaiser's sons, possessing all the charm, and vi- 
vacity of manners of the Crown Prince, but is with- 
out that Prince's absurd ideas about the necessity 
of war. Any one of those three sons of the Kaiser 
can give yards to any other young R.oyalty in Ger- 
many and win easily in capacity for administra- 
tion and the King business. 

Certainly if the German people insist on being 

318 



THE FUTURE KAISER— THE CROWN PRINCE 

ruled by some one and on being occasionally 
dragged out to be shot or maimed in an unnecessary 
war, they could not find more capable rulers than 
the Hohenzollerns. 

Prince August Wilhelm is of a milder charac- 
ter. He, of course, wears the uniform of an officer, 
but has entered the civil service of the government. 
He is now a landrat or government official, and 
some day will be given charge of one of the prov- 
inces of Prussia such as Silesia or Posen. He is 
married to his first cousin, a niece of the Empress, 
the Princess Alexandria Victoria, daughter of 
H. H. Frederick Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig- 
Holstein-Sonderburg-Gliicksburg. They have one 
son, a fine healthy specimen. The August Wil- 
helms live very simply in a palace in the Wilhelm- 
strasse, very plainly furnished. They are fond of 
amusements, riding, theatres and dancing. August 
Wilhelm has none of that desire of war so char- 
acteristic of the Crown Prince. 

Of Princes Oscar and Joachim, little is known. 
Oscar, during the war, married Countess Basse- 
witz, who has been a Maid of Honour in the Palace. 
The marriage was of course morganatic, and on 
marrying the young Countess was given the title of 
Countess Ruppin. Her children will be Count and 
Countess Ruppin and cannot inherit in any contin- 
gency, the Kingdom of Prussia. 

Adalbert had no resting place in Berlin, but per- 
haps now that he is married a palace may be as- 
signed to him. Eitel Fritz and his wife occupy 

319 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

the Bellevue Chateau between the Tiergarten and 
the River Spree. His wife is childless. 

The Kaiser, the Crown Prince or some of the 
numerous Princes of Prussia are always rushing 
about the streets in motors, each one heralded by a 
blast on the cornet. Beside the chauffeur on each 
royal motor sits a horn player who plays the par- 
ticular few notes of music assigned to that Prince. 
The Kaiser's call goes well to the words fitted to 
it by the Berliners, ''celeri salade" (celery salad) 
and has quite a cheerful sound. 

On days of an outdoor function the streets ring 
with these calls as the royal automobiles whizz 
back and forth. It is forbidden by law for any one 
other than royalty to announce his coming by 
more than one note on a Gabriel horn, or other de- 
vice. I do not know whether out of town or sub- 
urban royalties from Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 
Strelitz, Lippe, etc., are allowed this privilege when 
in Berlin ; I think not, and that is perhaps one rea- 
son w^hy they so consistently shun the capital of 
Prussia. 

When the Kaiser motors to Potsdam he usually 
sits in one of three motors which travel very fast, 
one behind the other. I do not know whether this 
is by design or not, but of course, it makes an at- 
tempt on his life more difficult. 

I used one of the Kaiser's motors in occupied 
France — a large Mercedes, run by a skilful driver 
at a great rate of speed. 

The Crown Prince is especially fond of horses 
and if he succeeds to the throne will undoubtedly 

320 



THE FUTURE KAISER— THE CROWN PRINCE 

keep up the Royal stable or Marstall. This is situ- 
ated on the bank of the Spree across the square 
from the Royal Schloss in Berlin. There are kept 
the carriages of state, those sent to bring Ambas- 
sadors to the Palace when they first present their 
letters, two hundred splendid saddle and driving 
horses, with modern carriages, four-in-hand 
coaches, dog carts, etc. Most of the Foreign Am- 
bassadors use state carriages for great occasions, 
with bewigged coachmen and standing footmen. I 
think Ambassador White was the last American 
who indulged in the luxury of a state carriage. 
As a plain dress suit did not exactly fit with 
a Cinderella coach, I went to functions, such as the 
Emperor's birthday reception, in a large automo- 
bile, retaining only of the former state the neces- 
sary body huntsman who acted as footman on 
these occasions and who wore a livery of hunting 
green, a cocked hat, with red, white and blue plumes 
and a long hunting dagger in his belt. 

Out of consideration for the feelings of others I 
retained the porter in his old finery, a Berlin insti- 
tution. At state dinners the porter of a Royalty 
or^ Ambassador stands at the house entrance, clad 
in a long coat, wearing a silver belt diagonally 
across his chest, and crowned by an enormous 
cocked hat worn sideways. The porter carries also 
a great silver headed staff, like a drum major's ba- 
ton, and when guests of particular importance ar- 
rive he pounds this stick three times on the pave- 
ment. 

It used to amuse the Berlin crowd lining Unter 

321 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

den Linden to see the Ambassadors and Ministers 
leave the Palace or Cathedral on the Kaiser's birth- 
day, New Year's day, etc., to see the state carriages 
of the other Ambassadors overtaken by the modern 
automobile from America. 

The Berlin lower classes are renowned for their 
dry wit and they find much to amuse them in the 
tasteless statues and monuments of Berlin. 

In the square outside our house was a statue of 
one of Friedrich the Great's generals which seemed 
to afford the boys great fun. The General is 
shown in the act of reflectively feeling his chin 
and by chance is gazing uncertainly at the barber 
shop of the neighbouring hotel Kaiserhof. 

Nobody knows, of course, whether the present 
Crown Prince will succeed Emperor William — no- 
body knows the fortunes of war or the fate that 
this war has in store for the Hohenzollerns but 
while I personally like the Crown Prince, admire 
his skill in sports, his amiable ways, his smiles to 
the crowd, I know also of his crazy belief in war. 
And so long as a ruler persists in this, he is as 
dangerous to the peace of the world as a man with 
a plague to the health of a small community. 



322 



CHAPTER XXIV 

WHEJN GERMANY WILL BREiAK DOWN 

T REMEMBER a picture exhibited in the Acad- 
emy at London, some years ago, representing a 
custom of the wars of the Middle Ages. 

A great fortress besieged, frowns down on the 
plain under the cold moonlight. From its towering 
walls the useless mouths are thrust forth — if re- 
fused food by the enemy, to die — the children, the 
maimed, the old, the halt, the blind, all those who 
cannot help in the defence, who consume food 
needed to strengthen the weakened garrison. 

Every country of the world to-day is in a state 
of siege, is conserving food and materials, but not 
yet has Germany sent forth her useless mouths, to 
Holland, to Scandinavia and to Switzerland, a sign 
that not yet is the pinch of hunger in the Empire 
imperative. 

Since I arrived in America in March, 1917, 1 have 
been like Cassandra, the prophetess fated to be 
right, but never believed. I said then Germany 
would never break because of starvation, or fail 
because of revolution, and that her man-power was 
great. 

We have not made sacrifices enough in this war, 
there are too many useless mouths. I believe that 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

there are in the States of New York and Pennsyl- 
vania alone 175,000 professional chauffeurs, a great 
number of them employed on automobiles not used 
for business or trucking. And then think of the 
thousands of skilled mechanics employed in ga- 
rages and factories repairing and making mere 
pleasure vehicles. If all these chauffeurs (nearly 
all with some knowledge of machinery) and me- 
chanics were put at work building ships or making 
rifles there would be no loss to the country, but cer- 
tain overfed women and their poodles would have 
to walk, greatly to the advantage of their health 
and figures. 

Private automobiles disappeared very quickly in 
Germany. At first a man who could not reach his 
business in any other way was allowed to use his 
own automobile but even these soon went out of 
commission and then bicycles were forbidden except 
for rides to and from business, work or school. A 
few ramshackle taxicabs still survive in Berlin at 
the railway stations, driven by benzol instead of 
gasoline and shod with spring tires. No one can 
keep a taxi waiting, it is subject when waiting to 
be commandeered by the first comer. 

Gradually as we realise the gravity of the con- 
flict our lives will become more earnest and luxu- 
ries will be given up to meet the changed condition. 
There must be a committee who will tide over the 
workers in luxury industries and help them to learn 
new war trades. This was done in Germany by 
the great organisation of the Woman's Service. 
Already Fifth Avenue dressmakers have dismissed 

324 



WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 

many of their workers, who, being without re- 
sources, should receive assistance and advice until 
they have learned other trades. 

Our farmers are entitled to cheaper labour. Why 
should not enemy aliens work our farms? We do 
not propose to make the Austrian and German and 
Hungarian women agricultural slaves as the Ger- 
mans made the Russian women caught by the war 
within the borders of Germany, nor have we the 
right, I believe, to force civilian prisoners to work. 
But we can give these civilian men instead of meat 
twice a day, now given them, the same food which 
the Germans give their prisoners, until the enemy 
aliens volunteer to work in our fields. They 
should, of course, work as in Germany under 
guard. They should be used also in mines, fac- 
tories, etc. The sooner we use every ounce of war 
energy, the sooner we shall beat Germany and ob- 
tain a lasting peace. 

Eventually forced by the hopelessness of the 
economic situation, the nerve of Germany will 
break. There is a suicide point in the German 
character. The German has been sustained since 
the war by victories somewhere. No defeats were 
brought home to the German people. Viewed from 
inside the German Empire what are the loss of a 
few villages on the West front or even of distant 
colonies compared to the conquest of Belgium, of 
the richest part of France, of thousands of square 
rniles of Russia, of Roumania, Montenegro and 
Serbia? With the exception of a very small bit of 
Alsace the war is being fought far from German 

325 



OPACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

territory. The German can swagger down the 
streets of the capitals of his enemies, in Brussels, 
Belgrade, Bucharest, Warsaw and Cettinje and 
Prussian greed exacts tribute from rich cities from 
Lille on the West to Wilna far within the fron- 
tiers of Russia. 

Our President has never faltered. He will con- 
vince the Germans at last that we are unfaltering, 
in the war, that nothing can swerve us from our 
goal, — the destruction of the autocracy which 
looks on war as good and seeks the dominion of the 
earth. When the Germans grasp that, then will 
come the suicide point. 

There is nothing in the war for the German who 
is not a noble or a junker, an officer or an official. 
German victory will only bend the collar of caste 
and servitude, low wages and militarism tighter 
on the German neck. Sooner or later the deceived 
German will discover this ; revolution will not come 
during the war, but after it, unless it closes with 
a German peace, or unless in anticipation of revolt, 
rights are granted to the people. 

We cannot stop, we cannot bear the burden of 
the debts of this war and at the same time burden 
ourselves with future military preparation to meet 
a confident conquering Germany ready to carry the 
sword into South America. Whatever the sacrifice, 
we must go on. 

And for each country and for the Allies as a 
whole there is one word, Unity. 

When all had signed our Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, Benjamin Franklin said, "And now we 

326 



WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 

must all hang together or we all shall hang sepa- 
rately." 

Russia has, for the moment, failed and unless 
she recovers herself she will pay the penalty by 
submission to German rule. 

Is there a defect in the Russian character? Is 
persistency lacking? In 1760, the Russian troops 
had taken Berlin. If Russia had gone on strongly 
with the war, the power of Frederick the Great 
might have been broken. But apparently the Rus- 
sian troops simply turned around and went back 
to Russia. In 1854, in the Crimean War, after a 
long siege and bitter losses, the French, Turks, Eng- 
lish and Sardinians succeeded in taking one Rus- 
sian city, Sebastopol, in the extreme southern part 
of Russia. With this exception, Russian territory 
was intact and yet the Czar Alexander II, shortly 
after the death of Nicholas, begged for peace. As 
a result the Black Sea was made for a time neutral 
and no state could have warships or arsenals on it 
with the exception of small gunboats for police 
purposes. 

In 1878, after the Russo-Turkish war, when the 
Russian troops were in sight of the minarets of 
Constantinople, the Russians allowed themselves 
to be bluffed by the diplomats of Europe from ob- 
taining the fruits of victory. 

Secretly or openly, Germany will propose to the 
world to take her pay from the skin of the Bear, 
from the conquered territories of Russia which re- 
main in her possession. The inhabitants of those 
territories would have to become the slaves of 

327 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Prussia as did the inhabitants of Belgium and 
Northern France. Prussians of Russia paid the 
agitators to talk about peace without indemnities. 
Germany, since the first days of the war, has been 
taking indemnities not only in money, but in prop- 
erty and in labour from the conquered countries. 
Belgium alone has been compelled to pay a tribute 
of forty-million francs a month (lately sixty mil- 
lion) to her conquerors and vast sums have been ex- 
acted from Lille and other conquered cities. Prop- 
erty, including machinery, has been seized and 
transported to Germany in the effort, not only to 
obtain a temporary advantage, but to destroy for- 
ever factories that compete with German manufac- 
turers. 

Especially do the German autocrats hope to ob- 
tain the so-called Baltic provinces as a spoil of war. 
Of Courland, Livonia and Esthonia now largely oc- 
cupied by the German invaders, Courland and Li- 
vonia were originally possessions of the Teutonic 
Knights, then became a part of Poland and finally 
passed to Russia. The three provinces were gov- 
erned semi-independently, until 1876, when they 
became in all respects an integral part of the Rus- 
sian Empire. The land in the provinces is held by 
great landowners, mostly of German blood — and 
the mass of the population belongs to the Lutheran 
Church. The peasants have been kept down by the 
lords of the soil, whose sympathies turn to Ger- 
many. 

In 1913-1914 I met in Berlin several landlords 
from these provinces who acted in Berlin and were 



WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 

treated in Berlin like Germans, although subjects 
of the Russian Czar. So backward were these 
provinces in liberty under their German landlords 
that it was not until 1848 that the infamous "right 
of the lord" (droit du Seigneur or Jus primce noc- 
tae) was abolished. 

What Tannenberg has to say about Courland, 
Livonia and Esthonia is well worth studying. He 
writes : 

"The most precious portions for us of the Russian 
heritage are the German Baltic provinces, Courland, 
Livonia, Esthonia. 

"To the north in Esthonia and in the northern part of 
Livonia live the Esthonians. In the South, the Livonians 
of the Lithuanian branch. Esthonians and Livonians are 
Lutherans and form the principal part of the population. 
There are 250,000 Germans. But the civilisation is Ger- 
man and gives to the whole country a German stamp. 
In the rural districts, the great landlords, the ministers 
of the Gospel and the school masters are German. In 
the cities the middle classes are Germans. But the work- 
ingmen are Esthonians or Livonians. The Russians are 
only represented in the large cities by officials. 

"It was in the middle of the twelfth century that the 
first German settlements were made at the mouth of the 
Dina. In 1201, Riga was founded, and, in 1202, the 
Order of the Knights of the Sword. In 1237 this Order 
was united with the powerful Order of the Teutonic 
Knights. There was no thought then of the Muscovites. 
From Marienburg to Riga it is five hundred kilometres, 
from Koenigsburg to Riga, three hundred and fifty, to 
Moscow eight hundred and fifty. Moscow was then 
going through a very difficult period. In 1225, the battle 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

of the Kalka took place which put an end to the power 
of the great Russian Princes. 

"From Riga to Kalka, Dantzig, Stettin and Lubeck, 
there was sea communication. The all powerful 
merchant marine of the Hanseatic League was at its 
height." ... 

Tannenberg describes how these provinces finally 
became part of Russia and adds: 

"Courland, Livonia and Esthonia became the model 
provinces of the whole Empire. The German nobility 
furnished Russia with its generals and its high officials : 
the University of Dorpat was founded and was the model 
of the high schools created later in Russia. . . . The 
University of Dorpat exchanged its professors with the 
other German high schools of the Russian Empire. The 
students of the Baltic provinces passed several terms in 
the German Universities of the South and East of Ger- 
many and then returned to Dorpat to undergo their ex- 
aminations to enter in the service of the Baltic or Rus- 
sian State. 

"One encounters constantly in our literature allusions 
to the Baltic provinces. Kant, the philosopher of pure 
reason, published his work at Riga. ... In the time of 
Goethe students from Courland and Livonia visited the 
great of Weimar. Richard Wagner commenced at Riga 
his theatrical and musical career." 

Tannenberg speaks of the revolution after the 
defeat by the Japanese of the Russian troops in 
these provinces when the castles of the German 
Barons were besieged by the people and says, "The 
cry of indignation resounded through all Germany. 
A military German intervention was generally ex- 

330 



WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 

pected. Against all expectation nothing of the kind 
happened." . . . ''When the Russian Government 
finally got control the Russian troops treated the 
rebels mildly and it was finally the sparkling on 
the horizon of five million German bayonets that 
hastened matters so well that superficially, at least, 
order was re-established." 

Speaking on the annexation of those provinces 
to Germany he says: 

"There is no money to be seized in the East but there is 
something which is of more value than cash and that is 
lands, lands of colonisation for new German peasants." 
And he points out that the Baltic provinces are about the 
same size as Bavaria and Wiirttemberg, but in Bavaria 
and Wiirrtemberg there are eight and a half millions of 
inhabitants while the Baltic provinces support a little over 
two millions. 

"The Baltic provinces have always occupied an impor- 
tant place in the thought and sentiments of the German 
people. The public as a whole does not inquire if it's 
true that only fifteen per cent of the population is Ger- 
man. For the public they are simply the German prov- 
inces of the Baltic and the German people are right, be- 
cause since seven hundred years the proprietors of the 
land there are Germans and the civilisation has always 
been German." 

Should Germany be allowed to seize these prov- 
inces, to increase her population and man power 
enormously, a second great war like this one will 
not be far off and Russia, deprived of what Peter 
the Great called "His window on the Baltic," will 
lose her place as an European Power. 

331 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

The Germans will endeavour, during any peace 
negotiations, to keep their troops there in the hope 
that they will be permitted to occupy these prov- 
inces or that, if a vote should be taken to deter- 
mine to which country the inhabitants wish to be 
annexed, the latter would be coerced through the 
German landlords, and by the use of money and 
terror made to appear as desirous of annexation to 
Germany. 

Prince Miinster, who had been in this section dur- 
ing the war, told me once how easy it was to ob- 
serve that the more prosperous sections of the 
population were German and how anxious these 
people were to become Germans. In this case I 
think he was right to the extent that the feudal 
landlords of the Baltic provinces believe that as 
Prussian Junkers they would have a greater chance 
to continue to oppress the people than as Russian 
citizens, especially citizens of a new Russian re- 
public. 

The Allies must guard against any move which 
can add to the man power of the Central Powers, 
and this reason alone is sufficient reason never to 
permit the Arabs and Syrians, who have been so 
oppressed by the Turks, to suffer again under the 
rule of the Young Turks. 

The world must not be disturbed again by Prus- 
sian dreams of world conquest, nor must Jerusalem 
and the Holy Land, towards which the eyes of all 
Christians have turned for twenty centuries, be 
voluntarily given back to the Turks. 

To allow the Germans access to Bagdad is to 

332 



WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 

invite trouble — a second attempt of the Kaiser to 
don the turban and proclaim a Holy War in the 
interest of the fat merchants of Hamburg and 
Frankfort. 

If this were an old time war, when sly diplomats 
sat at a green table, exchanging territories and peo- 
ples like poker chips, we might consent to the parti- 
tion and destruction of Russia as most natural. 
But this war is between two systems, and wars 
either will be continued or cease hereafter. We 
who hope for the end of war cannot permit 
Germany to add to her man power any part of the 
rapidly multiplying population of that great terri- 
tory which we now call Russia. 

It is probable that Russia will go through the 
stages of the great French Revolution. We have 
had already the revolution made by the whole na- 
tion, Duma, army, and the control of the respect- 
able moderate Republicans. The period of the Jac- 
obins, the extremists, has come, too, and we must 
in the end expect the appearance of the military 
leader, a strong man w^ho will bring order. That 
is what will happen, for Russia cannot remain a 
nation under the control of any government which 
cheerfully consents to dismemberment of her ter- 
ritory. Perhaps Trotzky will be clever enough to 
transform himself into a patriotic militant leader, if 
not, then he will not long remain at the head. 

All these movements of lesser so-called nationali- 
ties are fostered by Prussian propagandists. 

The region of the Ukraine, in Southern Russia, 
is supposed to be clamouring for freedom and in- 

333 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

dependent existence. Long before the Russian 
revolution, I and all the diplomats of Germany were 
flooded with newspapers, pamphlets and literature 
about the longing of the Ukraine — all as plainly 
issued by the Germans as if they had been stamped 
with the Royal arms of Prussia and the seal of the 
General Staff. 

The Lithuanians, too, stir uneasily. There is, 
perhaps, more in their claim ; they request the world 
not to confuse them with the Poles and they pro- 
test against incorporation with Poland. But should 
a number of little states be created, sliced from the 
map of Russia, they would enjoy but a short inde- 
pendence before falling, one by one, into the maw 
of Prussia. 

Every one sympathises with the Poles and hopes 
for the establishment of a really free and inde- 
pendent Poland, and not a Poland under the rule 
or protection of either Austria or Germany. It 
will be a great experiment, because in the past the 
great state of Poland, one of the greatest in Eu- 
rope, was broken because of the incapacity of the 
Poles to rule themselves. Their armies showed 
great bravery, the Polish cavalry, winged like an- 
gels, terrified enemy cavalry horses and charged 
often to victory ; but the Polish aristocrats, camped 
with thousands of retainers at the place where the 
King was elected, sat patiently waiting for the 
highest bidder before giving their votes. 

And the King once elected, the Polish diet ac- 
complished nothing, because any noble who voted 
against a proposition could defeat it. This was the 

334 



WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 

so-called "liberum veto" so fatal to Poland. Kath-. 
arine of Russia, that clever, wise, dissolute but 
great German Princess, placing a puppet favourite 
on the Polish throne, insisted on the retention of 
the "liberum veto" in the Polish Constitution, be- 
cause she knew that by the mere existence of this 
asinine institution Poland could be counted on to 
commit suicide for the benefit of the watching spoil- 
ers, Russia, Prussia and Austria. 

But a new, real Poland would not be governed, 
by its aristocracy, and under a democratic govern- 
ment the splendid Polish race could be trusted to 
work out successfully their political salvation. 

Should the strong man fail to appear in Rus-. 
sia and the Bolsheviki continue to rule, then the- 
confusion of Russia may not prove an immediate 
help to Germany. 

In the first place, no one now works in Russia; 
the population will be in want of food and will not 
have any great surplus to export; and it will be a 
long time before Germany can draw aay material^ 
help from the Steppes of incompetency. Had Rus- 
sia immediately settled down to a new form of' 
government, the case might have been different, 
but now Germany or some power in Russia must 
first organise that vast country for production un- 
der new conditions before Germany can begin to 
profit from the withdrawal of Russia from the war 
except, perhaps, in that important factor — the re- 
lease of German troops from the Eastern frontier. 
But as time passes the Germans may use food from- 

335 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

Russia to bribe northern neutral nations into an al- 
liance with the Central Empires. 

Revolutions are contagious. In 1848, the move- 
ment started in France spread all over Europe. 
The burdened horse on the road evinces a tendency 
to get out of hand at the mere sight of another 
horse cavorting about a pasture. The Germans 
are in blinders and driven by heavy hand, but for- 
gotten as liberty is in Germany, the German 
Michael, the peasant chained to the soil, the hard- 
driven, poorly paid worker of the cities, at least, 
will exhibit a spirit of uneasiness, when across the 
line he sees Ivan, the Russian moujik, capering 
about, free from restraint and running things at 
his own sweet will. The yoke fits tight to Michael's 
neck, the German Kaiser drives hard from his All 
Highest Place ; but no Emperor seemed more secure 
than the head of the Romanoffs, and the very fact 
that the chains of the yoke seem so strong may 
make the driven cattle all the more ready to toss 
the yoke aside when knowledge of power comes to 
the lower castes of Germany and Austria. 

On the question of war Prussia is a civilisation 
as different from that of France, Great Britain and 
America as is China. 

Ministers of the Gospel, professors, poets, writ- 
ers, teach war; the necessity, the glory, the nobil- 
ity of war. Long before Nietzsche wrote and 
Treitschke taught war as a part of the Prussian 
creed the teachings of these mad philosophers ex- 
pressed an indigenous feeling in Germany. It is 

336 




REPRODUCTION OF A PUST ( AHD CELEBRATING THE PROWESS 
OF THE ZEPPELIN, SOLD IN GERMANY 




ZEPPELIN POST CARD OF PATRIOTIC SENTIMENT SOLD IN GERMANY 
POPULARIZING THE AIR RAID ON DEFENSELESS CITIES 



WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 

not some abstract belief to be studied. It is a vital, 
burning, ever-present question which affects deeply, 
intimately, every man in this world. For until the 
Prussians are made weary of this belief and con- 
verted to a milder life, there is no woman in any 
corner of the earth, however remote, who may 
not have to see her son or husband go out to die in 
the fight against Prussian aggression, who may not, 
if this fight fails, be dragged away with her daugh- 
ters to become slaves or endure that which is far 
worse than slavery. 

If the Prussian people themselves cling to their 
Gods of War, if Kaiser and Crown Prince fulfil 
their ideals, if the Prussian leave the reins in the 
hands of these warlike task masters and refuse 
to join the other peoples in stamping out the devil 
of war, then the conflict must go on, go on until 
the Germans get their stomachs full of war, until 
they forget their easy victories of the last century, 
until their leaders learn that war as a national in- 
dustry does not pay, until their wealth and their 
trade has disappeared, until their sons are maimed 
and killed and their land laid waste, until the blind- 
ers fall from their eyes and they sicken of Emperor 
and Crown Prince, of the almost countless Kings 
and Grand Dukes and Princes, Generals and Ad- 
mirals, Court Marshals and Chamberlains and Ma- 
jors and Adjutants, Captains and Lieutenants, who 
now, like fat, green, distended flies, feed on the 
blood of Germany. What is there in war for any 
one but those men of froth at the top? It is this in- 
fernal king business that is responsible; so much of 

337 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

the king tradition is bound up with war that a king 
with power feels that he is untrue to the traditions 
of his ancestors if he fails at some period of his 
career to give the court painters and the court poets 
and the court historians a chance to portray him 
as a successful warrior. 

The British air minister recently announced 
that reprisal raids were to be made on German 
towns. Who is not sorry for the poor people who 
may suffer, but the w^ar must be brought home to 
them. They have made no protest while Zeppelins 
killed babies and women and children in the "for- 
tress" of London. The "fortress" of London, in- 
deed! First the Germans attack an open town, 
contrary to every rule, and then, when guns are 
mounted to ward off future attacks, the Germans 
christen the town a "fortress" and claim the right 
to continue this slaughter of non-combatants. 

Postcards were sold and eagerly bought all over 
Germany showing the Zeppelins bombing towns. 
When some German father sits by the hospital bed 
of his dying daughter, who sobs out her life torn 
with a fatal wound, let him tack one of these post- 
cards over the bed and in looking on it remember 
that "he who lives by the sword shall perish by the 
sword," that it was at the command of the Kaiser 
and the Crown Prince when they thought only the 
German Zeppelins could make a successful air raid 
that these massacres were ordered and that the 
German people at the time yelled their approval 
of deliberate dastardly murder. 

"Te Deum" has been always the favourite psalm 

338 



WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 

sung in cathedrals for all Christian conquerors, but 
neither psalms nor the paid pastor's praises of the 
Emperor will satisfy the German people, who have 
made awful sacrifices for intangible victories. 



339 



CHAPTER XXV 

THS E:rRORS of efficient GERMANY 

'T^HE Yankee finding himself, like Mark Twain's 
-■■ hero, suddenly transported back to King Ar- 
thur's Court is landed in a surprising and unknown 
world. But one of King Arthur's knights brought 
to life at the court of the present German Emperor 
aside from steam, electricity, gun powder, telegraph 
and telephones would find the system as despotic as 
in the days when the enchanter, Merlin, wove his 
spells and the sword Excalibur appeared from the 
depths of the magic lake. But while the system is 
as royal and as despotic as in King Arthur's day, 
while the king and his military nobles look down on 
the merchants and the toilers and the plain people, 
no knights ride forth intent upon good deeds, to pro- 
tect the poor or avenge the wrongs of the innocent. 
It was the cold realists of the General Staff who 
battered down the defences of Belgium and the forts 
of France, destroyed the monuments of art and 
levied a tax of sixty million francs a month upon a 
little country deprived of its means to produce 
wealth, took the food from the inhabitants, shipped 
the machinery and raw material into Germany, de- 
ported the men and insulted the women and drove 

340 



THE ERRORS OF EFFICIENT GERMANY 

whole populations from their homes to work as 
slaves for the conquerors. 

But while they can plan military successes in the 
first rush of assault on the chessboard of Europe 
they have failed to understand other nations — failed 
even to learn the lessons of history. They did not 
know that in every land, in every walk of life, there 
are men who will "reject a bribe and who will die 
for an idea." 

Imagine a German Staff officer reporting in 
Berlin that over a hundred thousand Alsatians 
were armed and organised and that they threat- 
ened, unless certain proposed legislation uniting 
them, for example, with Baden, was withdrawn, to 
resist forcibly any attempt to incorporate them in 
that Grand Duchy. Would not this look to a Ger- 
man officer like real revolution and nothing else? 
And when, in addition, there came news of the 
landing of arms for the Nationalists in Ireland and 
of the organisation of the Nationalist army, the 
Germans, without knowledge of the psychology 
of other peoples, believed that Great Britain had her 
hands full and that the moment had come when 
they could go to war and leave Great Britain out 
of all calculations. So studying only the German 
mind, believing that all peoples in national character 
are like the Germans, the Great General Staff, the 
greatest military aggregation the world has ever 
seen, failed lamentably, whenever the human ele- 
ment became the factor in the situation. Its mili- 
tary successes have been marvellous; its judgments 

341 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

t)f mankind ridiculous. Its errors of judgment may 
be arranged as follows : 

Brror Number One. 

Italy was in alliance with Germany and Austria, 
although there was no greater hate before the war 
than that between Italians and Austrians; and the 
Great General Staff believed that Italy would re- 
main in this unnatural alliance, would fight in order 
to give the Germans and the German- Austrians the 
domination of Europe. The victory of the Central 
Empires would have placed Italy under that Aus- 
trian influence from which in her struggle for free- 
dom under the leadership of Cavour, Garibaldi and 
Victor Emanuel she had liberated herself. 

Prince Buelow, who early in his career romanti- 
cally married a charming Italian of good family, 
was sent to Rome to keep Italy neutral. But he 
failed. 

Brror Number Two. 

Germany's belief that because of the Carson 
movement Great Britain was immobilised and could 
take no part in the war, 

Brror Number Three. 

The theory cherished especially in military circles 
that because the Japanese army had been trained 
by Prussians Japan would join Germany. Indeed, 
at the moment when the Japanese were packing 
their trunks and preparing to leave their Embassy, 
a German crowd with flags and torches was assem- 

342 



THE ERRORS OF EFFICIENT GERMANY 

bled in front cheering Japan, the latest ally of the 
Entente. 

Error Number Pour. 

The belief by the General Staff that the British 
Colonies would render no assistance to the mother 
country. 

In the first days after England entered the war 
many German statesmen said to me, ''Of course, 
now Canada will be incorporated in the United 
States." The Germans believed that the practical 
thing, for the moment, for the Canadians was to 
avoid war, to disavow all their obligations and ties 
of blood and permit Britain to be destroyed. The 
General Staff thought that because the world did 
not have actual proof of the German designs of 
world conquest, because that design had not been 
publicly proclaimed, that no people or nation would 
either know or understand the vast enterprise of 
conquest on which Prussian autocracy had em- 
barked. 

Error Number Five. 

The unexpected resistance of the Belgians. 

The German armies were held only a few days, 
yet the delay of those few days changed the for- 
tunes of the world. 

Error Number Six. 

The splendid stand of France which was a com- 
plete surprise to the Great General Staff. They be- 
lieved that France was degenerate, torn by scandals, 

343 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

and that a sudden assault would land the German 
army in Paris. In this connection it was another 
great error for the Germans to have sought Paris, 
important from a sentimental but not a military 
point of view. They might better have occupied 
first the north coast of France, and from there 
could have conducted the German submarine cam- 
paign with deadly effect. 

Brror Number Seven. 

We have seen what a shell the Russian Empire 
was, but in July, 1914, the Great General Staff be- 
lieved that Russia was on the edge of a revolution. 
Barricades had been erected in the streets of Petro- 
grad and the Staff believed that the revolution, 
which has since divided Russia, was in the making. 
Instead of this the Russian Empire lasted for nearly 
three years and the Russian troops and generals in- 
flicted many a hard blow not only on the Austrians 
but on the German forces. 

Brror Number Bight. 

Germany was confident that the United States 
had been so propagandised, so covered by bribes, 
by paid newspapers, that the export of supplies to 
the Allies could be prevented. Another error was 
the barbarity shown in the sinking of the Lusitania 
by which it was sought to terrorise Americans into 
withholding from England and France the privi- 
leges of international law, and of the definite treaty 
of The Hague in 1907, in which Germany had joined 

344 



THE ERRORS OF EFFICIENT GERMANY 

and which gave to private individuals the right to 
supply munitions of war to any belligerent. 

Brror Number Nine. 

Thinking that the Emperor, by posing as a Mo- 
hammedan in the East, could with the aid of the 
Turks stir all Mohammedans to a Holy War. 

The Germans laboured with the Mohammedan 
soldiers captured by them. I saw many fine look- 
ing old Sheiks from the desert entering the Foreign 
Office in Berlin. The Eastern world was filled with 
German spies. But the Holy War was a failure, 
and the hope that the races of Asia and Africa 
would rise in favour of Germany was not borne out 
by events. The men of the East are wise, the rulers 
of India are enlightened and were not silly enough 
to place themselves voluntarily under the harsh rule 
of Prussia. 

Brror Number Ten. 

The belief that President Wilson had been elected 
with an absolute mandate to keep the peace at all 
costs, the Germans declared for unrestricted sub- 
marine warfare, expecting a craven neutrality from 
the United States. 



345 



CHAPTER XXVI 

PRP:SIDENT WILSON AND P^AC^ 

/^NCE the Kaiser said to me, ''I wish I had as 
^^^ much power as your President. He has far 
more power than I have." 

What would the Kaiser say of the power and 
prestige now enjoyed by the President of the 
United States? 

At first blush it seems almost ridiculous for us 
to rush to war shouting against autocracy while 
the man with the greatest power the world has ever 
seen announces to the world that we fight *'to make 
the world safe for Democracy." 

Charles I must turn enviously in his grave when 
his spirit sees the obedient Parliament of Wash- 
ington; and a line of fallen Kings, from Charles to 
Nicky Romanoff, must wish that they had had the 
opportunity to attend lectures at Princeton Uni- 
versity where our President, Woodrow Wilson, 
once held forth on the science of government. 

But it is characteristic of the high intelligence 
of our people that we have recognised that war 
to be waged effectively must be directed by one 
head. We know that after the war we shall be 
able to recover all the powers delegated to the^ 
President. We have gained by our temporary sur- 

346 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 

render all the efficiency of autocracy and risked 
none of its dangers, and have simply followed the 
custom of the free German tribes which elected a 
leader for war and gave him a power never given 
the chiefs in time of peace. 

How much more enduring is our Government! 
Since the war the government cabinets of England 
have twice changed radically, that of France five 
times, and Italy very frequently indeed. Few real- 
ise that our Constitution is the oldest in the world 
to-day. Since its adoption the government of every 
land in some material particular has changed many 
times, France, for instance, from King and Repub- 
lic, then to citizen kingship, then to Republic, then 
to Empire, and finally to Republic. In England the 
form has remained the same, but the power passed, 
in 1830, with the passage of the Reform Bill, from 
nobles to commoners, as great a revolution as any 
in France. 

And I admire the very inaccessibility of Presi- 
dent Wilson. He does not waste time on non-es- 
sentials, on useless, polite conversation or pointless 
discussion. This may add to his enemies but makes 
for efficiency. 

When I saw the President on one occasion about 
German affairs we talked for four and a quarter 
hours without intermission. In that period he ex- 
tracted from me all the information he required 
at the time. He is a wonderful man to have at the 
head of our nation in war or peace. 

Gradually the splendid peace message of our 

347 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

President (Jan. 8, 1918) will sink into the con- 
sciousness of the German people. 

There are liberal and reasonable men among 
them striving for peace and for disarmament. 

In January of 1917, just at the moment when 
the military autocracy brought on war with Amer- 
ica by their sudden announcement of ruthless sub- 
marine warfare, the liberals of Germany were pre- 
paring to co-operate with our President in the ef- 
forts that he was then making for peace. 

A Socialist member of the Reichstag, a man 
whose name is known throughout the world, wrote 
at that time two articles to be used in the efifort for 
peace, and I print them in order that those outside 
of Germany may obtain a glimpse of the mind of 
one of the leading Socialists of that country. Thest 
articles have never before been published. 

I feel that now when we are at war with Germany 
perhaps it would cause embarrassment to this man 
should I publish his name. In a country where a 
man may be sent to jail for speaking without re- 
spect of some act of the Kaiser's ancestors, com- 
mitted more than four hundred years ago, it is dan- 
gerous for any German to put his name to utter- 
ances which might not march with the wishes of 
despotic Germany. 

It has always been the desire of the Kaiser's 
government to draw the Allies into a peace con- 
ference with the hope of detaching some of the 
Allies from their combination. Perhaps these ar- 
ticles, although written by a Socialist, were part of 
a clever governmental peace propaganda to which 

" 348 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 

the majority Socialists so readily lent themselves 
during the year 19 17. But on the other hand I 
think these articles represent the sincere real ex- 
pression of the writer who is still a member of the 
Minority or Haase faction of the German Socialist 
Party. Though written a year ago they discuss 
points still unsolved and which must come before 
the peace conference that settles the war: 

HOW AMERICA CAN HELP EUROPE 
BY , MEMBER OF THE REICHSTAG 

The immediate reply of the Central Powers to Presi- 
dent Wilson's note (Dec, 1916) has been a polite refusal 
to indicate, beyond some generalities open to the blame 
of ambiguity, in a clear way what their demands of 
peace would be. It has been followed by their note to the 
neutrals of the nth of January, which also avoids giv- 
ing a distinct delineation of their demands. The Central 
Powers maintain that only a peace conference of the 
belligerents themselves would l^e the proper place to 
bring forth the respective peace conditions, and they 
state they would produce theirs when once the conference 
has met. Putting aside every insinuation of motives one 
cannot help being reminded by this of the attitude of the 
Central Powers during the fateful twelve days of July- 
August, 19 14, when they refused any outside mediation 
and insisted on direct conversations between Russia and 
Austria, whilst the punitive military expedition of the 
latter against Servia had to take its course. In so far 
their suggestion would not augur well for the execution. 

The Entente Allies, on their side, have been somewhat 
more explicit. Their answer to President Wilson in- 

349 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

eludes the delineation of demands that certainly are open 
to criticism, but just for this call for a reply or even com- 
pel it. At the time these lines are written only newspaper 
comments have so far come forward, and it is not nec- 
essary to dwell upon these. Nor does it seem appropri- 
ate to anticipate the reply of the Chancellor, which in 
some form or other will surely be given in the course 
of the next weeks. What matters is that there is a pro- 
gramme given for discussion and we are able to scru- 
tinise its nature and bearing. 

The demands explicitly or implicitly contained in the 
note of the Allies can be summarised under five heads, 
viz.: 

1. Restitution of occupied territory to its former 

political community, 

2. Reparation for inflicted material and moral 

wrongs, 

3. Territorial changes motivated by alleged 

a. rights of nationality, 

b. need for freeing suppressed or pro- 

tecting consistently maltreated na- 
tionalities, 

4. Reform of International Law, 

5. National and international treaties for the pro- 

tection of inland and maritime boundaries. 

Of these the demands under i and 2 are certainly in 
their principle quite reasonable, and if it comes to actual 
and exact formulation are apt to lead to a fair agree- 
ment. 

The demands under 3 are partly on principle also un- 
objectionable, whilst some, as e. g., the cession of the 
Polish provinces of Prussia to a Polish state under Rus- 
sian tutelage or the cession of the European vilayets of 
Turkey to Russia or some newly created community un- 

350 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 

der Russian tutelage, can hardly be supported by rea- 
sonable argument in the face of the fact that they could 
only be carried out by dictation after a complete and 
crushing victory of the Allies over the Central Powers. 
That is to say, after a prolonged war more murderous 
and more embittered than that behind us. It is to be 
expected that public discussion will in regard to demands 
of this nature create an opinion resulting in their reduc- 
tion if not disappearance. What is reasonable in them 
falls either under number 3, letter "a," or under numbers 
4 and 5. 

Now as regards the demands under 4 and 5, the set- 
tlement of most of them belongs rightly to an Interna- 
tional Conference of all the nations. In their good and 
efficient regulation all are interested. They are also of 
the greatest concern to the future of mankind as a whole. 
The demands or questions can as regards their general 
character also be divided under three other heads, viz. : 

Firstly, questions of justice to nations or nationalities 
as political or sociological entities. 

Secondly, questions of the most expedient settlement of 
disputes between individual Powers or groups of such 
where no fundamental principles of nationahty or simi- 
lar rights are concerned, and 

Thirdly, questions which concern all the nations 
through their common interest in general security and 
protection against the disturbance of international peace 
and traffic. 

Both the Allies and the Central Powers agree to the 
idea of settling these latter questions in a better way 
than before; i. e., by an International League of the Na- 
tions to enforce peace. But both want the creation of 
this League to be settled after the war. It can, however, 
with good reason be upheld that there Is in this a fault 
against logic which would have to be paid dearly by them 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

as well as by the neutral world. Both base a number of 
their demands on the necessity of protecting themselves 
against renewed onslaughts by their opponents. Now 
such protection might be a necessary thing under the 
present state of an International Law which has been 
outraged and partly been made inane by themselves and 
has partly turned out not to meet the conditions of mod- 
ern warfare as they result from the modern weapons of 
destruction. But it would be made unnecessary or its 
requirements be greatly reduced if the League of the 
Nations, such as is in principle accepted by them, did al- 
ready exist or had its rules and regulations already laid 
down in detail. Is it reasonable to allow this contradic- 
tion to cause now innumerable deaths and mutilations 
of human beings and unbounded destruction of material 
wealth instead of seeking means to dissolve it as early 
as possible? Ought not all our wits be exerted to find 
this earlier solution? 

There are within the means of the neutrals, if acting 
together, two ways to bring the war to an earlier end 
than that to be expected from the free decision of the 
belligerents. The one is to drop all considerations of 
neutrality such as at present regarded and, without di- 
rectly supporting the one section to the detriment of 
the other, withdraw from both of them all supplies in 
food, raw material, half and wholly manufactured goods, 
not minding which section would by this be more dam- 
aged than its .opponents. In fact, it would most likely 
be a decidedly unneutral measure against the one section 
which now benefits more than the other by these supplies, 
and because of this and from other reasons there is 
little probability that it would find general acceptance. 
The other way is to reduce the justification of the con- 
tinuation of the war by minimising the objects for which 

352 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 

it is led in the belief of the great masses of the people 
engaged as much as in the eyes of the outside world. 

Both belligerents, to say it again, put in the first line 
of their requirements security against renewed attacks, 
protection against the continuation of the insecurity of 
peace. Both admit that the proposed League of the Na- 
tions has become a necessity; both admit that it might 
indeed protect mankind against new wars and a state of 
incessantly endangered peace. Why then wait and let 
the disaster go on instead of proceeding at once to lay 
the foundation of this League? 

The step is not so impossible as it might appear. Sup- 
posing one neutral state took the matter in hand and, 
after having ascertained the consent of the other neu- 
trals or at least a majority of them — which it is almost 
sure to obtain— would invite all the nations, the bellig- 
erents included, to a conference or a congress at a neu- 
tral place for the discussion and the arrangement of the 
principles and rules of the proposed League of the Na- 
tions. Would the belligerent nations refuse to send their 
delegates to such a conference? Could they do it with- 
out damaging their case before the world of the neu- 
trals and the masses of their own people? It is most im- 
probable that they would do such a thing. And even if 
they did they would not by this ^mt the conference to 
naught. It would be there and would give palpable sub- 
stance to an idea which until now lived, in spite of great 
and most ingenuous work spent on it, politically only in 
the sphere of lofty speculation or projects. 

And the conference could do more. Starting from the 
maxim which finds such impressive accentuation in Presi- 
dent Wilson's note that war in general must not, and the 
present war in particular can not, be regarded as the pri- 
vate affair of the individual states that engage in it, the 
conference could also take into consideration some ques- 

353 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

tions of consequence connected with the present war. It 
could, e. g., whilst laying the foundations for the secur- 
ity of countries against wilful attacks lay down opinions 
about the just settlement of disputed questions of na- 
tionality and the liberation of nations or part of such 
from allegiance to a state or empire of different or mixed 
nationalities. It seems to become a necessity to make 
clear whether a Power or coalition of such can be justi- 
fied to put in the list of their war aims the liberation of 
nationalities without sufficient proof that the latter all 
want to sever their connection with the state or empire 
to which they just belong. 

The Tcheques in Austria and the Finns in Russia 
strive for their full autonomy within these empires, but 
they have very little shown of a desire to become a sepa- 
rate state. An opinion that wars for abstruse benefits 
never asked for can under no circumstances be regarded 
as liberation wars would wrong nobody because it would 
apply to all, but it may contribute much to have designs 
given up which otherwise would uselessly cause blood- 
shed and prolonged enmities. 

The conference would also be justified in taking meas- 
ures to procure an impartial expert opinion on the origin 
and the legal conduct of the war and the general princi- 
ples of national and international right involved. 

If the conference would invite neutral experts in in- 
ternational law of general renown to investigate the ques- 
tions indicated above and draw up reports it would not 
by this offend in the smallest degree against the require- 
ments of impartiality. But the reports could, if based 
on careful examination and considerately worded, con- 
tribute very much to soften the excited minds in the 
countries engaged and facilitate the preliminaries of a 
genuine peace. 

There are, no doubt, all sorts of objections that could 

354 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 

be raised against this suggestion. But they can be met 
satisfactorily if the matter is taken up in earnest and 
with practical mind. The principal difficulty to over- 
come is tifiie; no time must be wasted by research in 
far-fetched details. It is a comparatively short list of 
pertinent questions which would have to be answered, 
and the materials of their examination are already at 
hand in the declarations and documentary publications 
of the different governments themselves which want to 
be verified by juxtaposition with the corresponding pub- 
lications of the other side and to be scrutinised upon 
their intrinsic significance. Works of conscientious le- 
gists and historians that could serve as specimens are not 
missing. But they are occasioned by private enterprise 
and express opinions not always in the measured lan- 
guage that would alone fit the purpose here in view. 

This purpose is to direct the minds of the greatest 
possible ntmiber of people in the affected countries to 
such way of regarding the questions of the war and to 
such comprehension of the feeling of the other side as 
are the necessary conditions of a sane and sober appre- 
ciation of the nature and the possibilities of a reasonable 
peace. The present feeling in these sections of the pub- 
lic which form public opinion in this country as in Eng- 
land and in France, is as full of bitterness as can be. A 
cure is badly wanted, but it does not proceed automati- 
cally. Weariness of the war is there, but it is counter- 
acted partly by the manifold incidents of the war itself, 
by the appetites it has awakened, by the mutual distrust 
it has created. 

It might be objected that one can hardly expect a num- 
ber of even neutral experts to come to a concerted 
opinion on these points. But it would be of little conse- 
quence if the experts, instead of agreeing on a common 
report, would publish majority and minority reports, 

355 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

What matters is that opinions of qualified experts are 
at all drawn up and published, so that discussion is as 
much as possible free from the effects of the biased 
speeches of interested statesmen and other politicians 
and their press. The report or reports would also be of 
use when an armistice at least had been agreed upon and 
a conference for the conclusion of a peace is sitting. And 
even if the work of the invited experts should take more 
time than the conclusion of the peace itself, the reports 
might still be of considerable value. For what matters 
is not only that a peace is come to but also that the na- 
tions should afterward possess authoritative impartial 
opinions on the main questions of consequence connected 
with the origin and the conduct of the war. For such 
opinions would educate the poisoned minds to an ob- 
jective and argumentative discussion of the means to 
prevent a repetition of the present disaster. 

Only those who live in the affected countries can be 
aware how great the need is for providing the general 
public with unbiased authoritative expositions of these 
questions. 

Finally the conference could and should also discuss 
in a pertinent way the question of disarmament. This 
question has to-day reached a stage much beyond that 
of mere desirability. It is now a question of com- 
manding necessity, one can justly say of life and death 
of the reached stage of civilisation. Not pious wishes 
or theoretical expositions will in regard to it now suffice. 
We must have practical proposals, proposals of a scheme 
to put disarmament into practice and proposals of the 
means to induce the different states to accept the scheme 
and to carry it out. 

It is a big and pretentious programme here suggested, 
the first to be decided by breaks with the old principle of 
non-interference in state affairs. But the times are so ex- 

356 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 

ceptional that extraordinary measures cannot be shunned. 
If one sees two lads fight each other with their fists 
or even sticks one may well say, "Let them first fight 
it out and then we shall see to bring them to reason." 
But if they stand on board a ship and, mad with rage, 
and, without interruption and unremittingly, throw in- 
cendiary matter at each other you would rather stop them 
before the ship is in flames. Under other conditions it 
might be the right thing to convoke a conference to be 
held after the war is over. As it is now, reason would 
demand not to adjourn the term to that juncture. This 
is not the place to adjudicate responsibilities. Suffice it 
to say that the present aspect of the conflict is the worst 
since its beginnings and threatens aggravations of its 
horrors. 

Of all the neutrals none is more predestined to take 
the initiative in this grave matter than the United States 
of America, by their great power, by their geographical 
position, by the ethnological composition of their citi- 
zens and last, but not least, by their historical traditions 
they before all are called to act. The small European 
nations are already, as it were, too much under the fire 
around them to be so free in their action as is the gov- 
ernment of the giant republic on the western hemisphere. 
But that they would with the greatest readiness join in 
the convocation of a conference for the settlement of 
at least the two first of the described subjects is sure 
beyond any doubt. 

The leader in the arrangement of this conference is, 
in my opinion, the least objectionable, and at the same 
time it is the most promising help that in the present 
appallingly entangled situation America can give Europe. 
The Old World is poisoned. The virus of the most irra- 
tional hatred of its component sections against each 
other, inoculated into them by all sorts of false leaders 

357 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

of opinion, eats deeper and deeper and threatens to mor- 
tify all the roots of a wholesome life. May the United 
States of America help a disunited Europe to find the 
way out of the deadly miasmatic jungle into which it 
has lost itself. 



THE HELPLESSNESS OF EUROPE 
BY , MEMBER OF THE REICHSTAG 

Europe is in the position of a wanderer who has gone 
astray into a swamp. In vain he labours to regain firm 
ground. The more frantically he struggles the surer he 
is to become submerged. Like an infant child he is un- 
able to help himself. Help must come from people out- 
side the swamp. 

We are now in the third year of the biggest, the most 
fratricidal and the most hopeless war the world has ever 
seen. It is hopeless in so far as on the one side none of 
the two coalitions is likely to be in a visible time as much 
the victor over the other that it can dictate it its own 
terms, and as on the other side there is no common basis 
to be seen for a sensible compromise. It is not the ex- 
travagance of demands that forms an insuperable bar- 
rier for peace. Extravagant terms of peace have indeed 
been formulated by unauthorised persons or groups but 
they have nowhere received the sanctioning stamp of 
the responsible governments. The latter prefer rather to 
shine by the moderation of their demands, at least as far 
as territory is concerned. But it is just this apparent 
moderation that makes peace such an almost insoluble 
problem. 

Far behind this moderation in regard to territorial de- 
mands looms the desire to destroy the opponents' chances 
of political predominance. The war is, for the present 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 

at least, in the first instance a struggle about the suprem- 
acy in Europe. And this perhaps more in a negative 
sense than otherwise. Jingoes are, of course, everywhere 
in high and low quarters, but it is very doubtful whether 
one of the responsible heads of the belligerent nations 
pursues for himself or his nation seriously and consist- 
ently what might be called the mastery of Europe. All 
are, however, dead against the idea that this mastery 
might pass into the other camp. Comparatively easy as 
it is to settle a dispute on questions of territory by arbi- 
tration or to work out schemes for compromise in re- 
gard to such, so difficult or almost impossible it would 
be to arbitrate on a question of actual supremacy or to 
settle it by compromise. 

Particularly in the camp of the Allies is the possi- 
bility lest Germany might emerge out of the war the 
actual arbiter of Europe conceived as an unbearable 
thought. None of the allied Powers, neither England 
nor France and not even Russia, Italy being in this re- 
spect quite out of question, has during the last decades 
shown a disposition or a pretence to play up to such a 
part. 

But Germany is suspected of nourishing ideas of this 
kind, and utterances of some of their prominent men, 
occasional sayings of the Kaiser included, tend to give 
substance to this suspicion. In vain Germans object that 
their country has all the 44 years since 1870 kept the 
peace in Europe. We have done the same, would the 
others reply, and we have not, as Germany has done, 
again and again threatened war when things did not run 
according to her wishes or humours. Germany has in 
fact abstained from actual peace breaking. But she was 
regarded and has not a little done to acquire the fame, 
as the latent or virtual disturbing element in European 
politics. 

359 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

This view in regard to political Germany has greatly 
been enhanced through many of her actions during the 
present war. It is natural enough, though not particu- 
larly edifying, that in a war each party ascribes all the 
guilt thereof to the opponents and poses as the innocent 
who maliciously was surprised when not dreaming of 
any harm. But the cantankerous way in which almost 
the whole political and intellectual Germany has handled 
this question and has treated it as a crime not to take 
in every respect the German view of the case and of all 
the details of warfare has strengthened the feeling that 
this nation has come to regard itself as a sort of high 
judge of Europe. People were reminded of that ill- 
considered harangue to German soldiers at the time 
of the China expedition when they were entreated to 
act towards the Chinese like the Huns under Attila. This 
and the eagerness to crush by overwhelming power every 
small nation that ventures to take sides with the Allies 
as well as the proclaiming of rights for submarines and 
Zeppelins upon h-er own authority — these and similar 
measures have only been too suited to nourish the con- 
ception that Germany places herself in the role of the 
scourge of God. 

How this feeling reacts upon political thought is illus- 
trated by a conversation a German socialist has had in 
the summer of 191 5 on neutral ground with a French 
socialist politician of no jingoish leanings at all on the 
possibilities of peace. Even if Germany declared herself 
ready to relinquish Belgium and to return to France every 
inch of ground occupied, his countrymen would not ac- 
cept peace from her, explained the Frenchman. And 
on the question, "Why not?" he replied passionately: 
"Because it would be the German peace ; because it would 
yet leave Germany the all powerful of Europe; because 

360 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 

it would make us depend upon the whims and tempers 
of that conceited military nation." 

"But are you going to bleed yourself to death?" was 
the next question, and the reply, uttered in a voice where 
sadness mingled with determination, was: 

"Yes, rather be ruined !" 

This is a specimen of the feeling created by the pres- 
ent war, and I am afraid the sentiment has not abated 
a whit yet. Germans have done a good deal in attempts 
to detach the French from the English. They have told 
them that they are only the poor seduced tools of the 
base and egotistic Britishers, that Germans did not bear 
them any malice, that they rather pitied them and would 
fain be ready to come to terms with them. But declara- 
tions of this sort proved only how little the French men- 
tality was understood this side of the Vosges. The 
French nation is too much impressed by the memory of 
her great past and the part played by her in European 
politics to stand being pitied and patted like children 
of tender age. It will be respected as an equal who acts 
with the full knowledge of the state of things and is too 
much given to political reflection to accept willingly any 
view of the war that visibly is coloured by the interest 
of Germany in the dissension between the two great 
Powers of Western Europe. The anti-German feeling 
runs still very high in France; her leading papers excel 
without any exception in extremely harsh language 
against everything German, and the great mass of those 
who in former years had propagated the idea of a Fran- 
co-German understanding are now dead against it. 

A similar feeling has step by step got hold of the Brit- 
ish nation. From not being very popular at its beginning 
in England, the war has come to be regarded as a greater 
national concern than any of its predecessors. The fran- 
tic if not hysterical outbursts of hatred against England 

361 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

in Germany when the former decided to stand by France 
in the war were at first not taken too seriously. But 
by and by the unceasing utterances of spite have, to- 
gether with the known acts of German aerial and sub- 
marine warfare, deeply reacted on the British mind. 
The feeling is now general that England has never be- 
fore had an enemy so full of hatred against her, so 
ardently desirous of causing her irreparable harm as 
she now has in present day Germany. 

Even such socialist papers as the Nezv Statesman, 
which before the war had no anti-German bias at all, 
have arrived at the same conclusion concerning what 
may be called a German peace as the French socialist 
politician whose opinions were given above characterised 
it. In an article called *'The Case for the Allies," and 
especially addressed to Americans, the New Statesman 
explains in its number of December 30th that peace with 
an unbeaten Germany would mean "Mittel Europa from 
the Baltic to the Black Sea," that nothing would pre- 
vent its expansion through the Balkans to El Arish and 
Bagdad, that throughout this vast area the authority, if 
not the suzerainty, of Berlin would be acknowledged and 
that the small European States north and northwest of 
Germany would without any resistance — by the mere 
force of things — come to be subjected to the dictate of 
Germany. In the words of the New Statesman, as the 
result of an inconclusive peace, "militarism would be 
more firmly established than ever by the record of its 
marvellous success and by the manifest need for a mili- 
tary organisation proportionate to so vast an expansion." 

Is this feeling justified? Does it appreciate facts at 
their exact value? There is undoubtedly an influential 
section in Germany which entertains feelings of this 
kind. It has its adherents particularly in naval circles 
and amongst the intellectuals of the nation and in a con- 

362 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 

siderable degree also in the financial world. These sec- 
tions hate in England partly the happy possessor of what 
in their opinion ought by right to belong to the German 
race and partly the power without which German expan- 
sion would meet with no resistance worth speaking of by 
European nations. This section of anti-English on prin- 
ciple or by deeply rooted hatred, influential as it is, is, 
however, not the whole nation. It has only now the hold 
of her mind because it has succeeded in instilling into her 
the belief that England is the secret manufacturer of 
the present war, that she is the selfish fermenter of 
hatred in Europe, the scheming brewer of strife on the 
Continent. England has become to the average German 
mind a real nightmare, a sort of a Frankenstein or any 
such spookish monster, and as she now, by the vicissi- 
tudes of the war, has indeed become the most dangerous 
of Germany's opponents it is not possible to educate peo- 
ple from the inside to a more rational view of her part 
in this war and in European politics altogether. 

There you have the greatest hindrances to peace in 
Europe. I did not mention Russia. But the war be- 
tween Germany, inclusive of Austria-Hungary, and 
Russia is of quite a different nature. It is more of a 
war of the older order. It has, of course, also evoked a 
good deal of hatred. But on the whole it is as wars go, 
more of an objective nature. There are material differ- 
ences on which it would not be impossible to compromise. 
But there is no such deeply-seated irrational opposition, 
which now sets Germans and English and French and 
Germans against each other. The war between the Cen- 
tral Powers and Russia is, comparatively speaking, an 
accident in the political history of Europe. The zvar be- 
tween England, France and Germany is a catastrophe in 
European civilisation. As a zvar it is most irrational, and 
just because of its absurdity it is so utterly difficult to find 

363 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

a solution for it, and there is little hope that unless some 
outside force intervenes, it may end otherwise than by 
absolute general exhaustion. 

Things would be otherwise if there were reasonable 
hopes of a concerted action on the part of the interna- 
tional union of the socialist parties. But such hopes, if 
they ever could be entertained, have by now become a 
thing of the past. In the three countries named the ma- 
jority of the leaders of organised labour have taken 
sides in the war alongside of their governments and 
have by this more or less given up independency and 
lost the confidence of their former comrades in the oppo- 
site camp. Distrust, which in general has so much con- 
tributed to bring about this war, prevails also in the 
ranks of the socialists in regard to the leaders of the 
movement on the other side of the frontier. Minorities 
everywhere work for a greater independency as a step 
to a better international understanding. But they have 
as yet nowhere succeeded in winning the majority of 
the movement over to their views and policy, and even 
if they did, all sorts of hindrances would by the gov- 
ernments be put in the way of these Socialists to assem- 
ble internationally in sufficient number for work of this 
nature. 

Nor is it to be expected that revolts of the discontented 
masses will be vast enough to force the governments 
into peace negotiations against their will. The possibili- 
ties of centralised governments against revolutionary up- 
heavals as long as these remain locally isolated, which 
in the face of the enormous extent of the section of the 
globe directly drawn into the war is most probable, are 
too great to let these movements have a great chance of 
changing the policy of the rulers. This would only hap- 
pen when at least some of these classes or parties which 
at present support the war come round to their opinion, 

364 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 

of which very few signs are at present to be seen. The 
work of small minorities everywhere, the war has got 
hold of the minds of the millions in all countries and 
has filled nations against nations with such distrust and 
spite as in the history of civilised mankind never before 
have been witnessed. 

How little we are justified to expect peace from the 
action of these socialists who stand by governments in 
the war is, as far as my own country is concerned, shown 
by the fact that the big meetings now (and, I am will- 
ing to admit, it is the intention of the initiators to 
hold them in favour of peace) led by the leaders of the 
majority of the social-democratic party, such as Messrs. 
Scheidemann, David, Ebert and others, turn out in prac- 
tice as meetings in support of the policy of the govern- 
ment in regard to the question of war and peace. In 
order to defend their own political attitude the speakers 
are compelled to shift the responsibility for the war and 
its continuation wholly on the shoulders of the govem- 
m.ents of the opposite countries and their supporters, and 
by this they increase in the mind of their hearers the 
conviction that nothing short of a defeat of these coun- 
tries will bring the war to a desirable end. In England 
the majority of the Labour Party and a considerable 
number of the best known socialist leaders and in France 
the most influential leaders of socialist party support 
also the war policy of their respective governments in 
all principal issues. The well meant and praiseworthy 
attempts to convene a full International Socialist Con- 
gress for the purpose of settling these differences by 
finding a common line of action are, I am sorry to say, 
under the circumstances most likely to prove abortive. 
They zvill founder on the self-contradiction that the So- 
cialists of the Entente countries argue that their govern- 
ments hate the idea of German militarism coming out 

365 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

unbeaten and unreduced out of this war which in their 
opinion was provoked by it, whilst the leaders of the 
German Socialists in power woidd rather see this same 
7nilitarism which they in former years have so violently 
attacked and denounced, come out victorious than have 
it interfered with by outside influence. 

In short, sections of the socialist movement will as- 
sist other forces in the action for peace, but the move- 
ment as a whole is incapable to act in the matter as a 
force of compelling strength. 

Help must in the main come from outside. Conse- 
quently President Wilson's action in his note to the bel- 
ligerents of December 20th would have been the right 
thing, even if it had offended in some way against the 
rules of diplomatic procedure. Under so exceptional cir- 
cumstances as these occasioned by the present war ex- 
traordinary steps are certainly justified and breaches of 
etiquette of little significance. But the note was fault- 
less in this respect, and it can morever be said that in 
no way did it endanger legitimate interests of the one 
or the other section of the belligerents. It offends only 
in spirit against Cain's word, "Am I my brother's keep- 
er?" and in distinct words against the conception that 
war is a private affair of states may it ever so much in- 
terfere with the material and moral welfare of other 
nations. 

The step has not at once succeeded. But it has opened 
the way; nay, it has forced the door open for discussion 
in a fashion that nobody will be strong enough to shut 
it again. True, the Central Powers have by their offer 
of peace negotiations forestalled the note by a week. 
But this offer would have come to naught without Mr. 
Wilson's action. Harsh as the reply of the Allies is to 
the offer, it would most likely have been put in much 
more negating terms had not the American note caused 

366 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 

the Entente Allies to avoid a blunt "No" and content 
themselves with raising objections and interjecting ac- 
cusations. By this they have willy-nilly provoked a de- 
bate and instead of shutting the door kept it well open. 

People may call this a small success. In fact it is a 
beginning, and for the first as such sufficient. The ques- 
tion is now what shall the next step be and how can the 
debate be directed to positive proposals? 

Of course, as these articles were given by this So- 
cialist-Author for publication any one is at liberty to 
reproduce them. 

In conducting the peace negotiations, President 
Wilson will have the benefit of the services of Colo- 
nel House, the one man who, I believe, is best fitted 
to protect the interests of America and of human- 
ity at such a conference. I, of course, saw Colonel 
House during the war in Berlin and in America 
and I consider that no man alive is his superior in 
either knowledge of the whole situation or in abil- 
ity to cope with the trained diplomats of Europe. 
Human nature is much the same and the gentle 
mannered Texan who has been so successful in 
American politics will not fail when representing 
us at the table of Peace. 



367 



CHAPTER XXVII 

AI^TE^R THI^ WAR, WHAT? 

"^rO one but a fortune teller or professional seer 
-^^ dares to predict the condition of the world 
after this war. Only mere suggestions can be 
thrown out, shadows of prophecy as to what may 
come. 

Will the tide of emigration turn from Europe 
and the United States to other countries or will peo- 
ple of German birth and descent leave America to 
return to the Eatherland after the war? 

I made it my business after I had learned Ger- 
man to talk to many of the plain people in Berlin 
and elsewhere, to get their views. I found that the 
common soldiers, especially those representing the 
class of skilled workingmen in the industrial cen- 
tres were almost tmanimous in saying that after 
the war and at the first opportunity they intended 
to leave Germany, to turn from a country capable 
of perpetrating this calamity on the world, a coun- 
try where they have been subject not alone to mili- 
tar}^ service but to a cruel and oppressive caste sys- 
tem of discipline. I believe that Germany will en- 
act laws against emigration and that there will be 
zones of espionage on all German frontiers de- 

368 



AFTER THE WAR, WHAT? 

signed to watch and keep back such Germans as 
may seek to escape to other countries. 

In Austria even more stringent laws will be 
necessary to keep the unmarried males from leav- 
ing. 

I know that experts of the United States Gov- 
ernment beheve at least three millions of Slo- 
vaks, Greeks, etc., will leave America after the 
war, taking with them the money they have earned, 
for investment in new opportunities in the Old 
Country. 

With this view I cannot agree. The soil of the 
European continent is too poor, wages too small, 
hours too long, and distaste for the military and 
caste systems too great, to tempt those who have 
tasted the equality and the freedom of America. 
Why to-day an ordinary coal miner in Pennsyl- 
vania can earn $5,000 a year — a sum greater than 
the pay of a Prussian or Austrian general! Why 
should this miner go back to insult and slavery? 

The greatest problem of Germany comes after 
the war — when these millions of men, trained for 
four years or more to murder, shall return. It 
will be hard for them to settle down to regular 
work, impossible for them to submit again to the 
iron discipline of German civil life. Will they not, 
as Bloch predicts, possibly, re-enact the horrors of 
the French Commune, or even those of the French 
Revolution ? 

It is hard to understand why Prussian autocracy 
does not freely offer what it will be compelled to 
give after the war — equal suffrage in Prussia, fair 

369 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

representation in the Reichstag — a government re- 
sponsible to the Reichstag. Is it not better for the 
Emperor to offer this — following Bismarck's say- 
ing that "in Prussia the revolutions are made by 
the rulers." 

And who of all rulers in history seemed to sit 
more securely on his throne than Nicholas who is 
now learning from his keepers what a Czar really 
is? 

The Emperor said to me once, "Is it not wonder- 
ful how the German people bear their sufferings in 
this war?" I said I thought it was wonderful. It 
is that and more, — it is almost a miracle — that a 
whole nation can so nearly approach this delirium. 

The autocratic idea survives in Germany — on 
November 22, 19 17, the Conservative Union of the 
Province of Brandenburg unanimously adopted the 
following resolution. 

"The Prussian State, fundamentally a people 6i 
its Princes, is the foundation on which the German 
Empire rests. 

"Not sovereignty of the people but Kingship by 
Divine Right is its corner stone. 

"We implore our deputies to do their best to 
prevent the Kingship being debased into a sham 
Kingship and being replaced by that sovereignty 
of the people by means of the alteration of the 
Prussian franchise." 

After reading this can any one wonder that the 
Kaiser believes he is called by God to rule the Ger- 
mans? 

"Kingship by Divine Right" — is quite a develop- 

370 



AFTER THE WAR, WHAT? 

ment of a Kingship that originated in foreclosure 
proceedings, when Prussia was taken for a debt by 
the crafty, rich HohenzoUern Burgraf of Nurem- 
berg. 

Is it any wonder that the Kaiser once said to me 
during the war, "Everything seems to be going my 
way — don't you think God is helping me?" 

The efforts of those in charge of the German 
propaganda to sow dissensions among the Allies 
are more than awkward. 

For some time after the landing in force of the 
British troops in France, the newspapers of Ger- 
many were filled with cartoons representing the 
British refusing to leave Calais; and now that 
America has entered the war even so intelligent a 
philosopher as Chancellor Hertling speaks as fol- 
lows: 

"If those who hold powe** in France forcibly repress 
every suggestion of peace, and try to rouse fresh will for 
war by a show of assurance of victory, in spite of the 
frightful sacrifices the war has cost the country, and must 
cost still further, it is because they are sustained by the 
hope of help from America. In this hope they patiently 
tolerate the Americans also making themselves at home 
in France, turning Bordeaux into a great American har- 
bour with immense loading and unloading wharves, and 
cutting down the forests of the Gironde in order to build 
a camp in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux for the ex- 
pected army. French workmen tolerate in their factories 
the competition of American workmen, with whom they 
are not in sympathy, and the owners allow them to look 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

into the secrets of their business, all so that the new 
Ally may help to take the revenge on the hated Ger- 
mans." 

Misguided old Philosopher ! 

The most stupid peasant of the Bordeaux coun- 
try does not believe that the Americans have come 
to France in order to occupy permanently a section 
of that sandy, barren scrub pine desert v^hich 
stretches to the south of Bordeaux. 

And President Wilson and his cabinet, Lloyd 
George and the statesmen of France and Italy, Por- 
tugal and Russia must be on their guard — ^W^olff's 
agency is at v^ork, spreading poisonous propaganda. 
Here is an excerpt that speaks for itself: 

"The Imperial and Royal Propaganda Depart- 
ment, Section of Foreign Affairs, calls the editor's 
attention to the practice of the enemy press in cari- 
caturing the Kaiser, the Crovi^n Prince, Hindenbur^- 
and alleged German militarism, with the evident in- 
tention of an odius anti-German propaganda. It 
would, therefore, be important from the patriotic 
point of view for the daily newspapers also to oc- 
cupy themselves by means of caricatures with the 
principal events of the day. 

"The idea of such propaganda has been conceived 
by the supreme military command. And it is there- 
fore desirable that all should conform to it. The 
official cinema has been ordered by the supreme 
command to enter into direct communication with 
the daily press, and many leading newspapers have 

Z1^ 



AFTER THE WAR, WHAT? 

hastened to express their readiness to insert these 
patriotic caricatures, for the drawing of which the 
service of the best artists in Munich and Berlin 
have been secured. These caricatures will regard 
chiefly the heads of state of the Entente powers, 
their political leaders and those who make no mys- 
tery of their hatred for Germany. The blocks will 
be supplied free of expense." 

German employers will never be able to grind 
down their workmen as before the war. The men 
who have fought in the trenches will return with 
a new feeling of independence, a new spirit of re- 
volt against the caste prejudices, a disinclination to 
do the same work in the same hours and for the 
same wages. 

My tailor in Berlin told me that several of his 
men who had returned after being discharged from 
the army because of some physical disability or 
wounds took an entirely different attitude and that 
one of them, for example, had said to him: "Do 
not think that I have come back to work as before. 
I have the Iron Cross, I have helped to save Ger- 
many. I am a hero and I do not propose again to 
be your industrial slave." 

That is the new spirit which after the war will 
animate the deceived, hitherto down-trodden lower 
classes of Germany. 

In our own country, the balance of political power 
may be held by the soldiers who are enlisted in the 
war and who, like the G. A. R.'s after our Civil 
War, may doubtless organise not only for protec- 

373 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

tion but for political purposes. And this great rest- 
less body of returned troops, veterans of wars be- 
yond the seas, may change our whole foreign pol- 
icy in ways of which we do not dream. We shall 
be a more warlike nation, less patient to bear insult, 
more ready for war, unless this war ends all wars. 

The war after the war, in trade and commerce, 
may be long and bitter. The rivers of Germany 
are lined with ships of seven or eight thousand tons, 
many of them built or completed since the war, 
and Germany designs as her first play in this com- 
mercial war to seize the carrying trade of the world. 
The German exporter has lost his trade for years. 
Alliances have already been made in great indus- 
tries, such as the dyestuff industry, in preparation 
for a sudden and sustained attack upon that new 
industry in America. Prices will be cut to far be- 
low the cost of production in order that the new in- 
dustry of America fighting single handed against 
the single head German trust may be driven from 
the field. The German Government will take a 
practical hand in this contest and only the com- 
bination of American manufacturers and the erec- 
tion of a tarifif wall of defence can prevent the 
Americans, if each fights single handed and for his 
own end, from falling before the united, efficient 
and bitter assault of German trade rivals. 

The war has brought new power and new respon- 
sibility to women. Armed with the franchise they 
will demand not only equal rights but equal pay. 
In Great Britain alone, before the war, there were 

374 



AFTER THE WAR, WHAT? 

less than five hundred thousand women workers 
where now over five million carry the burden even 
of the war industries of the country. 

Unless the war ends with a victory so decisive 
for the Allies that an era of universal peace shall 
dawn for the world, each nation will constitute it- 
self an armed camp fearing always that the Ger- 
man, with his lust for war and conquest, will again 
terrorise the world by a sudden assault. 

And a necessary sequence of this preparation for 
war will be the desire of each nation to be self- 
sufilicient — to produce within itself those materials 
indispensable for the waging of war. Capital will 
be wasted because each nation will store up quanti- 
ties of these materials necessary to war which it is 
compelled to import from other countries. 

For instance, Germany will always carry great 
stocks of grain and of fats, of copper and cotton 
and wool, all of the materials for the lack of which 
she suffered during the present war. 

In my first book, I touched on the change in the 
industrial system that will be brought about by the 
socialised buying and selling introduced first by 
Germany and which must be copied by the other 
nations if they desire to compete on equal terms 
with that country. In Germany for several years 
after the war at least, and perhaps as a permanent 
regulation, the purchase of all luxuries outside of 
Germany will be forbidden because of the desire to 
keep German gold and credits at home. 

Germans have even stated to me that they do 
not fear in a trade way any prejudice created 

375 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

against them In other countries by their actions dur- 
ing this war. They say that a man ahvays will 
buy where he can buy the cheapest, and that how- 
ever much a merchant may hate the Germans after 
the war, if he can buy the goods he wants for his 
use from Germany at a cheaper rate than any- 
where else, he will forget his prejudices in the in- 
terest of his pocketbook. 

This is a question which each reader will have to 
solve for himself. Personally, I believe that in 
England, in France, and in America, too, if the war 
should last a long time, the prejudice against Ger- 
man trickery and brutality in war will become so 
great that many a merchant will prefer to lose a 
little money than deal with German sellers. How- 
ever, the appeal of the pocketbook is ahvays so ear- 
nest and so insistent that the Germans may be right 
in the view that financial considerations will weigh 
down the balance as against the prejudice engen- 
dered in this struggle. And if there comes a change 
of government in Germany, if the Hohenzollerns 
no longer control, or if in a liberalised Germany 
the ministers are responsible to a popular parlia- 
ment, while kings sink to the political position of the 
kings of Great Britain or of Spain, then the com- 
mercial prejudice certainly will not last long. The 
boycott of Germany for fifty years suggested by 
the American Chamber of Commerce is a most 
powerful weapon. 

And why, if wars are to continue after this one, 
should we contribute to German trade profits and 
consequently to German preparations for another 

Z7^ 



AFTER THE WAR, WHAT? 

war? The nations of the Allies must reckon, too, 
with the bitter, bitter hate felt for them by the 
whole German people — and only one who has been 
in Germany since the war can realise its intensity. 

One great factor in forcing a change of govern- 
ment will be the desire of the individual German 
after the war to say that the government of his 
country existing then is not the government that 
ordered the shooting of Edith Cavell, the enslave- 
ment of the women and girls of northern France, 
the deportation of the Belgian workingmen, the 
horrors of the prison camps, the burning of Lou- 
vain and all the other countless barbarities and 
cruelties ordered by the German military com- 
manders. 

Imagine after this war in some distant island, 
perhaps, a Frenchman, an Englishman, an Ameri- 
can, a Portuguese, an Italian all seated at the din- 
ing table of a little hotel. A German comes in and 
seeks to join them. Will he be treated on an equal- 
ity? Will he be taken into their society? Or will 
he be treated as a leper and a pariah? 

The Germans will wish to be in a position to say : 
"Why, gentlemen, I was against all these cruelties. 
I was against the sinking of the Lusitania, and the 
murder of its women and children. I was against 
the starving of Poland and the slaughter of the Ar- 
menians and the crucifixion of prisoners, and we 
Germans have thrown out the government that was 
responsible for these horrors." 

Stronger than any other consideration will be the 
desire of the German to repudiate these acts which 

277 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

have made the Germany of to-day a Cain among the 
nations, — an outcast branded with the mark of 
shame. 

The Russian author Bloch whom I have quoted, 
says, referring to the future war : 

"Behind all conflicts of interest between nations states- 
men must balance the chances of success of their nation, 
promised by the recourse to arms, against the terrible 
miseries of the victims caused by war as well as the social 
peril which can be the consequence of war. 

"They who ask themselves when it will be possible to 
propose to the people of any nation after the war a com- 
pensation for its enormous sacrifices, forget that the con- 
quered will be so exhausted that there will be no question 
of being able to draw from a conquered nation the least 
pecuniary indemnity. All that can be imposed on the 
conquered will be the abandonment of some rags of fron- 
tier territory. 

"In these conditions, up to what point can calm be 
counted on to reign among the millions of men called 
to the colours, when in their ranks there is not more than 
a handful of old officers and when the command will be 
in the hands of those newly promoted from among the 
non-commissioned officers? That is to say, men belong- 
ing to the working classes. Will these workingmen sur- 
render their arms in the states of Central Europe where 
the propaganda has spread already among the masses? 

"Will they allow themselves to be disarmed after the 
war and could there not come events more horrible than 
those which signalised the rapid triumph of the Com- 
mune of Paris?" 

Just as to-day it is not isolated armies but whole 
peoples in arms that are opposed, so in the war of 

378 



AFTER THE WAR, WHAT? 

commerce after the war not single producers and 
exporters, corporations or individuals, but whole 
nations will meet in the markets of the world. 

Germany has favoured trusts — controlling prices 
and unfair competition — and we shall encounter in 
buying and in selling the whole German nation 
ranked behind their Central Buying Company in 
buying and their Kartels in selling. 

Isolated firms and individuals cannot on our side 
cope with such an offensive — but we are hampered 
in effectiveness by the so-called Sherman law — a 
law from which England is free. 

The war will produce great and sudden altera- 
tions and President Wilson in meeting new prob- 
lems has pursued a progressive course ; witness his 
support of the Webb law, which enables our manu- 
facturers to combine in export trade. 

Every sign points to a new era in business — an 
era in which the Government will permit — even en- 
courage — enlightened business combinations. 

The railroads of the country in the efficient hands 
of McAdoo have already bettered service, and the 
rights of the Savings Banks and of other holders 
of the securities of each road have been secured. 

We must, on the one hand, permit the abolition of 
ruinous competition and on the other safeguard the 
public from high prices, and the smaller firms and 
corporations from the unfair competition of a pow- 
erful rival. 

Great changes are coming in the social structure 
of the world. We are on the threshold of a great 
readjustment. Whatever else our entrance into the 

379 



FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 

war may accomplish, let us hope that it will have 
made of us a nation with the throb of a single 
patriotism and the steady pulse of an energetic effi- 
ciency that shall not merely seek in honest rivalry 
to compete with other nations but in an enlightened 
and helpful way shall strive truly to heal a wounded 
civilisation in the God-given days of peace. 



TH^ END 



380 




Berlin, ben 4. ^csember 1915. 



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